Michael Tharp

“Facts are the soil from which the story grows. Imagination is a last resort.”
― Dorothy Dunnett

“[Robin Stewart] was your man. True for you, you had withdrawn the crutch from his sight, but still it should have been there in your hand, ready for him. For you are a leader-don't you know it? I don't, surely, need to tell you?-And that is what leadership means. It means fortifying the fainthearted and giving them the two sides of your tongue while you are at it. It means suffering weak love and schooling it till it matures. It means giving up you privicies, your follies and your leasure. It means you can love nothing and no one too much, or you are no longer a leader, you are led.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Queens' Play

“I would give you my soul in a blackberry pie; and a knife to cut it with.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, The Disorderly Knights

“Today,’ said Lymond, ‘if you must know, I don’t like living at all. But that’s just immaturity boggling at the sad face of failure. Tomorrow I’ll be bright as a bedbug again.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, The Disorderly Knights