Tanith Lee > Quotes

“I hate the way, once you start to know someone, care about them, their behavior can distress you, even when it's unreasonable and not your fault, even if you were really trying to be careful, tactful.”
― Tanith Lee, Wolf Star

“A rose by any other name
Would get the blame
For being what it is--
The colour of a kiss,
The shadow of a flame.

A rose may earn another name,
So call it love;
So call it love I will,
And love is like the sea,
Which changes constantly,
And yet is still
The same.”
― Tanith Lee, The Silver Metal Lover

“Are not all loves secretly the same? A hundred flowers sprung from a single root.”
― Tanith Lee, Delirium's Mistress

“It was not apathy. It was an intelligent disinterest in those things that could have no bearing on one's existence.”
― Tanith Lee, Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer

“Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.”
― Tanith Lee

“When I write, I go to live inside the book. By which I mean, mentally I can experience everything I’m writing about. I can see it, hear its sounds, feel its heat or rain. The characters become better known to me than the closest family or friends. This makes the writing-down part very simple most of the time. I only need to describe what’s already there in front of me. That said, it won’t be a surprise if I add that the imagined worlds quickly become entangled with the so-called reality of this one.

Since I write almost every day, and I think (and dream) constantly about my work, it occurs to me I must spend more time in all these places than here.”
― Tanith Lee

“The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that it cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.”
― Tanith Lee, Delusion's Master

“Whatever the hell I am, I am Me.”
― Tanith Lee, Wolf Queen

“I will draw you back to me. You shall see. By a chain of stars.”
― Tanith Lee, Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer

“It's lovely. I hate it.”
― Tanith Lee, Wolf Queen

“The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.”
― Tanith Lee, Death's Master

“I'm not very good at being alive. Sometimes I despair of ever mastering it, getting it right. When I'm old, perhaps.”
― Tanith Lee, The Silver Metal Lover

“Go nowhere on a horse that fades, for your dreams will betray you.”
― Tanith Lee, Night's Master

“We all have our dreams. May we find them, and God have mercy on us when we do.”
― Tanith Lee, The Book of the Dead

“If you run away from trouble, it always follows.'
Rather my impression, too. Though that never stopped me trying.”
― Tanith Lee, Wolf Tower

“What is any of this to us? Time is endless and ours. Love and Death are only the games we play in it.”
― Tanith Lee, Delirium's Mistress

“She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an unraveling scarf of butterflies like winged blood.”
― Tanith Lee, Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer

“I held out my book. It was precious to me, as were all the things I'd written; even where I despised their inadequacy there was not one I would disown. Each tore its way from my entrails. Each had shortened my life, killed me with its own special little death.”
― Tanith Lee, The Book of the Damned

“Madness. I did not get myself born to die. I have better things to do.”
― Tanith Lee, Night's Sorceries

“Often misunderstood, Dionysus is far more than a wine deity. He is the Breaker of Chains, who rescues not only the flesh but the heart and spirit from too much of worldly regulations and duties. He is a god of joy and freedom. Any uncultivated, tangled, and primal woodland is very much his domain.”
― Tanith Lee, The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest

“I haven't changed. Something's happened to me, that's all.”
― Tanith Lee, Black Unicorn

“How massively the mountains stand, while low to the ground the sand blows. The sand blows on and on. And then there are no mountains, none at all, the sand has kissed and whispered them away. And still, the sand blows on.”
― Tanith Lee, Delirium's Mistress

“He sat by her, watching every gesture she made, as if he would paint her portrait afterward.”
― Tanith Lee, Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer

“She could not mourn. She could no longer weep grasping the essence of annihilation, she wished only to cease, to be no more, as if sunk in some profound sleep devoid of wakening.”
― Tanith Lee, Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer

“Live and let love.
Love and let go.
Go live.”
― Tanith Lee, Cruel Pink

“Though we come and go, and pass into the shadows, where we leave behind us stories told — on paper, on the wings of butterflies, on the wind, on the hearts of others — there we are remembered, there we work magic and great change — passing on the fire like a torch — forever and forever. Till the sky falls, and all things are flawless and need no words at all.”
― Tanith Lee

“He ached with weariness, but it became part of him; he scarcely noticed now that he was weary, he might always have been thus, it was so familiar to him.”
― Tanith Lee, Companions on the Road

“Pale beauty stands aghast,” he said, “at the vulgar ugliness of men.”
― Tanith Lee, Louisa The Poisoner

“and their days make no story for they were good and joyful and without event”
― Tanith Lee, Night's Master

“I began to feel lighthearted. Don't ever do that; it tempts some dark and evil force abroad in the universe.”
― Tanith Lee, Biting the Sun