Garth Nix > Quotes

“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“Touchstone watched, suddenly conscious that he probably only had five seconds left to be alone with Sabriel, to say something, to say anything. Perhaps the last five seconds they ever would have alone together.
I am not afraid, he said to himself.
"I love you," he whispered. "I hope you don't mind.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“My parents are going to kill me!"
"That seems rather harsh...”
― Garth Nix, Sir Thursday

“Maybe if I act well enough, I'll come to believe it myself.”
― Garth Nix, Abhorsen

“Sometimes it is easier to see the light when you stand partly in the darkness.”
― Garth Nix, Mister Monday

“Five Great Charters knit the land
Together linked, hand in hand
One in the people who wear the crown
Two in the folk who keep the Dead down
Three and Five became stone and mortar
Four sees all in frozen water.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“Fear and realisation of ignorance, strong medicines against stupid pride.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“Let this be my final lesson. Everyone and everything has a time to die.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“Choosers will be beggars if the begging's not their choosing.”
― Garth Nix, Lirael

“Who or what are you? Besides insufferably rude?”
― Garth Nix, Lirael

“I love you," he whispered. "I hope you don't mind.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“Knowledge, like all things, is best in moderation," intoned the Will. "Knowing everything means you don't need to think, and that is very dangerous.”
― Garth Nix, Lady Friday

“Please," said Lirael..."I think I would like to work in this Library."
"The Library," repeated Sanar, looking troubled. "That can be dangerous to a girl of fourteen. Or a woman of forty, for that matter.”
― Garth Nix, Lirael

“Often, I get the feeling that the story is really happening somewhere and all I'm doing is trying to work out the best way to tell it.”
― Garth Nix

“When the dead do walk seek water's run,
for this the Dead will always shun.
Swift river's best or broadest lake
to ward the dead and have and make.
If water fails thee, fire's thy friend,
if neither guards it will be thy end.”
― Garth Nix, Lirael

“Death and what came after death was no great mystery to Sabriel. She just wished it was.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“I am a great believer that anything not expressly forbidden is explicitly allowed.”
― Garth Nix, Clariel

“Choosers will be beggars if the begging's not their choosing," said the Dog
"What does that mean?"
"I have no idea," said the Dog”
― Garth Nix, Lirael

“As for you, Private, if you mention a word of this to anyone, I'll feed you to the cat thing here. Understand?"
"Yum," said Mogget.
"Yes, sir!" mumbled the telephone operator, his hands shaking as he tried to smother the burning wreckage of his switchboard with a fire blanket.”
― Garth Nix, Abhorsen

“Do not tarry, do not stop, no matter what happens.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“A Kiss," said Mogget sleepily. "Actually, just a breath would do. But you have to start kissing someone sometime, I suppose."
"A breath?" she asked. She didn't want to kiss just any wooden man. He looked nice enough, but he might not be like his looks. A kiss seemed too forward.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“Charity is a very labour-intensive virtue.”
― Garth Nix, Mister Monday

“So I'll do that, and I'll do my best and if my best isn't good enough, at least I will have done everything I could, everything that is in me. I don't have to try to be someone else, someone I could never be.”
― Garth Nix, Abhorsen

“If only Sam could have stayed just like the Dog, she thought. A comforting friend without the complication of romantic interest.There had to be something she could do to completely discourage him, short of throwing up, or making herself totally unattractive.
"I'm thirty-five," she said at last.”
― Garth Nix, Lirael

“Time and death sleep side by side.”
― Garth Nix, Abhorsen

“Why, Yrael?” it said, as the last of the dark gave way to silver, and the shining sphere of metal sank slowly to the ground. “Why?”

“Life,” said Yrael, who was more Mogget than it ever knew. “Fish and fowl, warm sun and shady trees, the field mice in the wheat, under the cool light of the moon.”
― Garth Nix, Abhorsen

“I can see time," whispered Mogget, so softly that his words were lost.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“Ranna," she said aloud, touching the first, the smallest bell. Ranna the sleepbringer, the sweet, low sound that brought silence in its wake.

"Mosrael." The second bell, a harsh, rowdy bell. Mosrael was the waker, the bell Sabriel should never use, the bell whose sound was a seesaw, throwing the ringer further into Death, as it brought the listener into Life.
"Kibeth." Kibeth, the walker. A bell of several sounds, a difficult and contrary bell. It could give freedom of movement to one of the Dead, or walk them through the next gate. Many a necromancer had stumbled with Kibeth and walked where they would not.
"Dyrim." A musical bell, of clear and pretty tone. Dyrim was the voice that the Dead so often lost. But Dyrim could also still a tongue that moved too freely.
"Belgaer." Another tricksome bell, that sought to ring of its own accord. Belgaer was the thinking bell, the bell most necromancers scorned to use. It could restore independent thought, memory and all the patterns of a living person. Or, slipping in a careless hand, erase them.
"Saraneth." The deepest, lowest bell. The sound of strength. Saraneth was the binder, the bell that shackled the Dead to the wielder's will. And last, the largest bell, the one Sabriel's cold fingers found colder still, even in the leather case that kept it silent.
"Astarael, the Sorrowful," whispered Sabriel. Astarael was the banisher, the final bell. Properly rung, it cast everyone who heard it far into Death. Everyone, including the ringer.”
― Garth Nix, Sabriel

“The visions are fragmented and a dark cloud spreads like spilt ink across the pages of possible futures.”
― Garth Nix , Lirael

“Hear, hear," said the Dog, raising her head. "It's always better to be doing, Prince. Besides, you don't smell like a coward, so you can't be one.”
― Garth Nix, Lirael