dustmotesandquotes

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People who read are hiders. They hide who they are. People who hide don't always like who they are.

André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name

#andré aciman #call me by your name #book quotes #fiction #reading

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I think I put my hands to my head as mortals do when so deeply troubled that they instinctively cover the face, reach for the brain as if they could reach through the skull and massage the living organ out of its agony.

Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire

#anne rice #interview with the vampire #book quotes #fiction #vampires

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In the oily gleam of lantern light, his face looks cleaved in two: one half dewed in gold and the other cached in darkness.

Ava Reid, The Wolf and the Woodsman

#ava reid #the wolf and the woodsman #book quotes #fiction #faces

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But how did a perfect being create something as imperfect as humans, so prone to caprice and cruelty? And why does a perfect being demand blood from little boys?

Ava Reid, The Wolf and the Woodsman

#ava reid #the wolf and the woodsman #book quotes #fiction #religion

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The redundancy of flesh, he thinks, the helplessness of meat, how can we conjure spirit from a bone?

Ian McGuire, The North Water

#ian mcguire #the north water #book quotes #fiction

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Life seemed meaningless: one lives, one writes poetry, one learns a series of sad or tedious or painful lessons, and finally one dies, after which one either starts over, goes to a not-terribly-interesting Paradise, waits for attention from one's descendants (who are busy with their own meaningless lives), or is obliterated, depending on which religion is right about death.

Kij Johnson, The Fox Woman

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Perlerorneq. That is the word the Esquimaux use for the feeling that eats away at the hearts of men during the winter that stretches out endlessly, when the sun seldom appears. Perlerorneq. Hoarse as the lament of an animal that senses the approach of death.

Dominique Fortier, On the Proper Use of Stars

#Dominique Fortier #On the Proper Use of Stars #fiction #The Terror #Franklin Expedition #book quotes

[dustmotesandquotes]

Through what aberration, through what grim irony had a vessel that was making ready to spend months in total obscurity been given the name of the Greek god of darkness?

Dominique Fortier, On the Proper Use of Stars

#Dominique Fortier #On the Proper Use of Stars #fiction #The Terror #Erebus #Franklin Expedition #book quotes

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Dammit, I can't believe I spent so much of my life on a man who would unironically post the line 'Today is a gift, that's why we call it the present.' (And in Papyrus, too.)

T. Kingfisher, The Hollow Places

#T. Kingfisher #The Hollow Places #book quotes #fiction

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Crozier knew how to lead men into battle as into peace, he knew how to read the sea and the landscape, the clouds and the stars. He knew the great wooden body of his ship as certainly as that of a faithful dog, but he did not and would never know how to offer a cup of lukewarm, sour liquid to a lady in such a way that she would find it delicious and consider herself obliged to him. For that, he would have been willing to trade all the rest.

Dominique Fortier, On the Proper Use of Stars

#Dominique Fortier #On the Proper Use of Stars #Franklin Expedition #Francis Crozier #The Terror #fiction #book quotes

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Before we came, the grandiose scenery of ice and sky did not exist; now we are tearing it from the nothingness to which it will never return, for henceforth it has a name.

Dominique Fortier, On the Proper Use of Stars

#Dominique Fortier #On the Proper Use of Stars #Franklin Expedition #The Terror #fiction #book quotes

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Perhaps Silver should have resigned himself already—resigned himself long ago—to a world that was essentially dry and unpleasant, where at the heart of every marvel there was just a skittering pest in the dark.

Emily Tesh, Drowned Country

#Emily Tesh #Drowned Country #The Greenhollow Duology #book quotes #fiction

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The captain was a canny, angry man with eyes the color of jade, and she knew that had she been twenty she would have found a way to kiss his mouth, to see whether she might soften those hard eyes a little.

Kij Johnson, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe

#Kij Johnson #The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe #book quotes #fiction

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His wife's the brand of Christian that forbids a gathering that involves young women dancing in the streets but not races where men die.

Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races

#Maggie Stiefvater #The Scorpio Races #book quotes #fiction

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All of a sudden she smells overwhelmingly of the sea. Not of the beach, which is what most people think is the odor of the sea. Not of seaweed, or of salt, but of your head beneath the surface, breathing water, lungs full of the ocean.

Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races

#Maggie Stiefvater #The Scorpio Races #book quotes #fiction #the sea

[dustmotesandquotes]

In real life, though, a very dramatic statement is usually met with awkward silence, and then somebody makes a joke to try to break the silence, and somebody else decides they need a cup of tea.

T. Kingfisher, Summer in Orcus

#T. Kingfisher #Summer in Orcus #book quotes #fiction