Megan Whalen Turner

I wonder if people always choose what will make them unhappy.

He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.

The Lord of Rags and Tatters.

No friend had I made there, but I wasn't with this group to make friends, and besides, he sneered too much. I've found that people who sneer are almost always sneering at me.

... I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered myself a hierarchy of one.

But there are other words for privacy and independence. They are isolation and loneliness.

Oh, Lady," said the woodcutter, "my hurt is overwhelming because it is someone else's pain that makes me cry.

If we truly trust no one, we cannot survive.

It isn't an easy thing to give your loyalty to someone you don't know, especially when that person chooses to reveal nothing of himself.

Sometimes, if you want to change a man's mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first.

These people make my family look easy to get along with.

I'll be your minister--""Of the exchequer? You'd rob me blind.""I would never steal from you," he'd said hotly."Oh? Where is my tourmaline necklace? Where are my missing earrings?""That necklace was hideous. It was the only way to keep you from wearing it.""My earrings?""What earrings?

I didn't think about being king,_ he said, his voice hoarse.Eddis stared. __our capacity to land yourself in a mess because you didn't think first, Eugenides, will never cease to amaze me. What do you mean you didn't think about being king? Is Attolia going to marry you and move into my library?

The Attolians liked to point out with a snicker that there was no sign anywhere of the king's hand at work.

I was not so comfortable with my new authority that I could say 'We eat the chicken now!' but the magus had seen that I was considering it..."My purse is full enough," said the magus, "to keep you supplied with roast chickens.""So, so, so," I said. "We know who the power behind the throne is," and the magus laughed."You eat more than Gen did after prison," he said."I have more sympathy with him all the time. Are you going to finish that drumstick?" I asked."I am. Stop staring at it.

I am not sure I trust you.""You can trust me with your life, My King.""But not with my wine, obviously. Give it back.

I think a good book is a good book forever.I don't think they get less good because times change.

If I am the pawn of the gods, it is because they know me so well, not because they make my mind up for me.