Emma

“We must be polite, Syen,” he says. He’s still smiling, but he’s furious; she can tell because he’s flashing too many teeth. “We’re only orogenes, after all. And this is a member of the Stillness’s most esteemed use-caste. We are merely here to wield powers greater than she can comprehend in order to save her region’s economy, while she—” He waggles a finger at the woman, not even trying to hide his sarcasm. “She is a pedantic minor bureaucrat. But I’m sure she’s a very important pedantic minor bureaucrat.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“Then she wonders why a part of her is trying to find value in degradation.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“with the sort of patience one reserves for people who are being particularly stupid but don’t deserve to be told that to their faces because they’ve had a hard day.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“I will tear the whole world apart if they ever hurt us again.'' But we would still be hurt, she thinks.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season