Status Updates From Witches Abroad (Discworld #12)

“Magrit plunged on with the brave desperation of someone dancing in the light of their burning bridges.”

“It’s not gambling to play against someone who’s no good. It’s common sense.”

“She wasn’t at all certain about the meaning of the word decadent. She’d dismissed the possibility that it meant having ten teeth, in the same sense that Nanny Ogg, for example, was unident.”

“The big paddle wheel sloshed through the thick brown soup of the river. The mode of power were several dozen trolls under a sunshade trudging along an endless belt. Birds sang in the trees on the distant banks. The scent of hibiscus wafted across the water, almost, but unfortunately not quite, overpowering the scent of the river itself.”

“Magrit knew this in the pink, fluttering boudoir of her heart.”

“Genua was a fairy tale city. People smiled and would joy for the live long day, especially if they wanted to see another live long day. Lilith made certain of that.”

“After a while, the velvet silence was broken by granny’s deep and resident snore. Shortly afterwards, it was joined by the genteel snoring of Nanny, who had spent far more time sleeping in company than granny and had evolved a more accommodating nasal orchestra. Granny’s snore would’ve cut logs.”

“Outside, deep in the trees, a wolf howled. The assembled villagers shivered in unison, as though they had been practicing.”

“‘Blessings be on this house’, Granny said perfunctorily. It was always a good opening remark for a witch. It concentrated peoples’ minds on what other things may be on this house and reminded them about any fresh cakes, newly baked bread, or bundles of useful clothing that might have temporarily escaped their minds.”

“It was the kind of landscape that had a particular type of story attached to it, featuring wolves and garlic and frightened women. A dark and thirsty story, a story that flapped wings against the moon.”

“Once or twice, they flew past castles. They didn’t look built, more extruded from the landscape.”

in reference to a waterfall: “Of course lots of dwarves, trolls, native people, trappers, hunters, and the merely badly lost had discovered it on a nearly daily basis for thousands of years, but they weren’t explorers and didn’t count.”

“He was trembling; partly out of lust, mainly out of terror, and slightly out of heredity.”

“In the dim light, she could see granny’s face which seemed to be suggesting that if Magrit was at her wit’s end, it was a short stroll.”

“Mirrors contain infinity. Infinity contains more things than you think. Everything, for start. Including hunger, because there’s a million billion images and only one soul to go around. Mirrors give plenty, but they take away lots.”

“Ferocious dogs would whine and hide under the stairs when grebo sauntered down the street. Foxes kept away from the village, wolves made a detour.”

“He hung limply, like a bag of water gripped around the middle. To nanny Ogg, Grebo was still the cute little kitten that chased balls of wool around the floor. To the rest of the world, he was an enormous tom cat, a parcel of incredibly indestructible life forces in a skin that looked less like a fur than a piece of red that had been left in a damp place for a fortnight.”

“The Oggs were what is known as an extended family. In fact, not only extended, but elongated, protracted, and persistent. No normal sheet of paper could possibly trace their family tree, which in any case was more like a mangrove thicket, and every single branch had a lowkey chronic vendetta against every other branch.”

“Once someone dies, you get that sort of thing. Pictures falling off walls, clocks stopping, great big wardrobes falling down the stairs, that sort of thing.”

“‘Give me a penny for delivering it’, said the poacher. Magret found one in her purse, ‘Money forges the chains which binds the laboring classes!” she warned, handing it over. Herker, who had never thought of himself as a laboring class in his life, was prepared to listen to almost any amount of gibberish in exchange for a penny.”

- Тъпо е да ни заключва – отбеляза Леля. – Аз досега да съм заръчала да ни убият.
- Така е, понеже като цяло си от добрите – обясни Маграт. – Добрите са невинни и раздават правосъдие. Лошите са виновни и затова са измислили помилването.

Невидимите хора знаеха, че щастието не е естествено състояние на човечеството и че никой не може да им го поднесе на тепсия.

Ако така се отазява лошотията, помисли си Леля, още преди години да бях съгрешила с туй-онуй. Възмездието за греха е смърт, но такава е и отплатата за добродетелта, а злите поне се прибират навреме от работа в петък вечер.