Madison > Madison's Quotes

“English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.”
― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“I have become something wonderful, she thought. I have become something terrible. Was she now a goddess or a monster? Perhaps neither. Perhaps both.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War

“With electroreception, Lewis hoped to sense her, know her, and love her even thousands of miles away in the ocean. Nothing he read indicated that electroception extended further than a couple yards. But maybe, he thought, maybe if I practiced, I would never really have to say goodbye. When Lewis finally came to bed, he took sleeping Wren’s hand in his and closed his eyes, seeing if he could sense her electrical field. “What… What are you doing?” she asked groggily. “Just seeing what it’s like to love you when I can’t see you.”
― Emily Habeck, Shark Heart

“I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. Listen to me. I am your echo. I would rather break the world than lose you.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War

“No … because they are just husbands. I am Evelyn Hugo. And anyways, I think once people know the truth, they will be much more interested in my wife.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Don't ignore half of me so you can fit me into a box. Don't do that.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer. Then, child, make another.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“You are wise,” he said.

“If it is so,” I said, “it is only because I have been fool enough for a hundred lifetimes.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“You don’t know how a rocket flies into space, but you accept that it does.”
― John Marrs, You Killed Me First

“Which is more intricate?” he mused. “The designs of men, trying to reach gods, or that of gods, trying to reach men?” My hammer collided with a chunk of granite. “What is either to the intricacies of women, who reach both?”
― Rachel Gillig, The Knight and the Moth

“There once was a girl,” he murmured, “clever and good, who tarried in shadow in the depths of the wood. There also was a King—a shepherd by his crook, who reigned over magic and wrote the old book. The two were together, so the two were the same: “The girl, the King… and the monster they became.”
― Rachel Gillig, One Dark Window

“Here we are, my darling girl, he whispered to me. The end of all things. The last page of our story.”
― Rachel Gillig, Two Twisted Crowns

“The man who must brag for himself knows that no one else will”
― Robin Hobb, Royal Assassin

“Thinking is not always...comforting. It is always good, but not always comforting.”
― Robin Hobb, Royal Assassin

“When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool you end up looking like a moron instead.”
― Robin Hobb, Assassin's Apprentice

“Why do you want to hide it from me?'
'I'm not hiding it. It just isn't yours.”
― Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

“Also I hadn't lost an ounce of the passionate desire to beat him over the head with a large stick, and surely that was a sign of true love.”
― Naomi Novik, The Golden Enclaves

“I imagine it’s always easier to do something monstrous if you can convince yourself you aren’t going to, up to the last minute, until you do.”
― Naomi Novik, The Golden Enclaves

“My advice is, if he’s worried about his reputation, don’t rape anyone.”
― Chanel Miller, Know My Name: A Memoir

“Her memory did that sometimes; she confused memories and reality, her imagination was too vivid, she couldn’t help it.”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis

“I feel sometimes it is so difficult to be conscious.”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis

“Surely no one else lived like this - burdened by the tiniest details they assumed had enormous consequences. Surely no one else was so anchored by anxiety. Other people could stumble and shake their heads and move on. How she envied their lightness.”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis

“Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal.”
― Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

“We’re as smart as evolution made us. So we’re the minimum intelligence needed to ensure we can dominate our planets.”
― Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

“I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering, and that I was human after all.”
― Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men

“My memory begins with my anger.”
― Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men

“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”
― Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built

“Not being able to think of a reply is not the same thing as accepting another's words.”
― Robin Hobb, Assassin's Quest