Maximilian Birkl

“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles—this they name empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”
― Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace

“The motion of a swift is an impenetrable language; as incomprehensible to me as the thoughts of a flower when it opens its petals at dawn, without memory or mind. A coherent logic and a dance, but not one I can shape within myself. All my attempts are approximation. One cannot render meaning in language one finds meaningless; nevertheless I know there is a design, a speaking, a world just on the other side of shadow, untouchable but nonetheless real. Three years since I came home from Ebrekt, and I still dream of the swifts, running: in dreams, sometimes I understand them.”
― Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace

“Then I will die on my feet," she said. "I will die with flames in my hand and fury in my heart. I will die fighting for the legacy of my people, rather than on Shiro's operating table, drugged and wasted. I will not die a coward.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War

“Palamedes remembers everything: That was his problem.

I always remember him. That’s mine.”
― Tamsyn Muir, The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex