Fantasy Quotes

“Ten feet away on my right, a pair of wooden double doors remain. Still intact, they survived the devastation the Archgod of Chaos and Destruction, aka DLD, wreaked on Uhna. They stand proudly, refusing to give in to reality. The hot air from the Teryn ship blasts the doors, shaking them in their frame. The wood creaks, resisting the pressure for a moment. Then the doors come crashing down to the ground. If they couldn’t survive the arrival of the Teryn praelor, what chance do I have?”
― S.G. Blaise, True Teryn

“You can never see what you don't know. That's the point-- you don't fucking know it.”
― Sophie Lark, Anastasia

“Nothing quite said ‘good morning’ as awakening with a man between the legs and another making breakfast.”
― Myosotis, Bloodlines and Shrines

“The king gathered himself. It felt as if the tomb was breathing in. The painted warriors lifted their swords and the archers let fly their arrows, aimed at the dust-wife. They were trapped in the wall and it should not have been possible for them to reach her, and yet for a moment, it seemed as if she would be drawn in to the wall, as if the arrows must reach her...

Moonlight flashed as she held up her staff and the painted arrows fell apart in to scattered pigment across the floor.

I will not bend! hissed the dead king, rising from his throne.

'Then you will break,' said the dust-wife, and slammed her staff across the painted wall.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“I made my life difficult
By showing what I'm not
Instead of what I am
But this is what
They want to see

…The systems divide
Because they are unfair
And make the evil look good
And the good look evil”
― Jazalyn, Rose: Future Heart

“The truth was she'd tried to sneak up on Kaz plenty of times since then. She'd never managed it. It was as if once Kaz had seen her, he'd understood how to keep seeing her.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

“The avarice of dwarves and the arrogance of elves are well known. But so are the temptations of humans.”
― Neha Teena, The Keeper of Rhymes

“... her teeth had begun to dance.

They twitched in her jaw like living things. She shrieked, not in pain but in horror, her mouth suddenly full of wiggling bone, as if she were in one of those nightmares where all her teeth fell out at once. It was like chewing and squirming and wiggling a loose tooth, wrapped all together, in time to the pennywhistle's tune.

She tried to bite down hard, hoping to still the awful dance, but it was worse, much worse, all the teeth rattling against each other, her skull filling up with the sounds of chattering. Oh god oh god no no no no NO!

It most of her teeth were dancing, the one bad molar was kicking. It felt as if it were battering against her cheek and the rest of her teeth, like a bird at a window, slam, slam, slam.

The Toothdancer leaned in closer and played more quickly. Marra wanted to scream in denial, but if she opened her mouth, all her teeth would dance out. Oh god this was worse than anything worse than the blistered land, that had been outside, and this was inside her skin inside her face-

With a popping sensation, the bad tooth pulled itself free of her jaw. It landed on her tongue, bouncing like an insect and began to batter against the backs of her lips. Marra yelped at the sensation of hard, crawling life loose inside her mouth. She tried frantically to spit.

The Toothdancer dropped the pennywhistle, leaned in, and plucked the tooth neatly from the surface of her tongue with his beak. He turned and dropped the tooth, wet and glistening, in to the tooth seller's palm.

Then he bowed very politely to Marra, patted her arm, and walked away.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“I wouldn’t trade what I have accomplished alone for whatever I would have done if I had conformed to their standards. Without them, I became passionate. Strong. Determined. Without them, I became successful. I became who I wanted to be. They missed out, not me. So why would I miss them, what could they possibly bring in my life that
I didn’t achieve for myself?”
― Myosotis, Bloodlines and Shrines

“Out of anyone, Ashe was more aware of the rules in place in the hidden world.
As a half-demon, Ashe knew how harsh the hidden world could be towards beings the WWC considered ‘inferior’. The bigotry and ignorance perpetuated by the hidden world’s institutions against half-demons was partly the reason Clover had chosen to become a lawyer and defend those weaker than her. She wanted to be there for Ashe, to protect him from a world which wanted nothing more than to classify him as dangerous and ban him from using craft or being a part of the hidden world.
The WWC prided itself as being a righteous institution, yet it disrespected any being that wasn’t entirely a witch. It had only begun accepting witches and wizards born to human ancestry about two centuries prior, but it still had miles to go before being entirely open to half breeds like kitsunes and other sentient demons.
Ashe knew the rules and their cost.
Yet, he didn’t hesitate to break them.”
― Myosotis, Bloodlines and Shrines

“Clinging to Kai felt like the only way out of her mind, the path to light and freedom... but sinking further in the silence of the shadows with Ren felt like relief and peace.”
― Myosotis, Hexes and exes

“Lee believed heartbreak was reserved to those who loved without being loved in return... She learned, that night, that heartbreakk could also exist between two hearts who yearned for each other without ever reaching one another.”
― Myosotis, Hexes and exes

“The matter both intrigued and unsettled him : would both their fires keep burning bright, or would they suffocate each other, consuming all and everything around them?

(...)

Lee was something else, more than a simple fire; she burned like a shooting star. Enflamed, consumed from within, drifting along and brightening the horizon. Lee was as stubborn, loyal and driven as he was... lonely, yet, surrounded by people they loved, individuals who fueled their fires, gave them a reason to shine. Does fire burn fire? Could they learn to become one giant pyre?”
― Myosotis, Hexes and exes

“Maybe threats and taunts and anger and violence were the only things he’d respond to. Maybe patience and love and time weren’t good for him, not to snap him out of the darkness he’d sunk in.
Thinking about it, Lee couldn’t see why she hadn’t thought of it sooner: Ren and her had always been drawn to raw emotions… pain, anger, jealousy, envy, wrath, lust. They were fire, and would only respond to flame scorching their hearts, poking at the pain, tearing it out at the root.”
― Myosotis, Vengeance and Legends

“He was a wooden puppet. Some kind of marionette, Marra thought, the kind that traveling performers used to entertain very young children. He had the carved hands and the clacking jaw, the articulated arms and legs. But the only string on him was a black cord that looped Miss Margaret's throat, and the puppet held it in one hand.

He moved as they watched. It was a slow, considered movement, like a tortoise turning its head in the sun, and it set Marra's nerves crawling.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Love must be allowed to flow both ways - if it is not, then it is not truly love, I think. It is something else. Infatuation, perhaps? either way, there are some of us who are far too quick to make martyrs of ourselves. We stand at the side, watching, thinking that we do the right things be inaction. We fear pain - our own, or that of another.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension

“Color, you see, was the universal sign of magic.”
― Taherah Mafi, Furthermore

“The Toothdancer looked like a stork or a heron, with a long hard bill and a curved, mobile neck. He wore a tattered black suit, with feathers sticking out of the holes, and his hands were very human. When he turned his head, Marra saw half a man's face below the beak, as if it were a mask, and yet his eyes were clearly a heron's, the colour of new-minted coins, and set back from the beak like a bird's.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Grief never leaves one’s soul. You grow around it, like a flower pushing roots around rocky ground to survive. You are still the same person, you’ve just evolved around your experiences. You’ll bloom again, but only if you keep trying.”
― Myosotis, Vengeance and Legends

“The glamour settled around him and left a smell like burning dust. Marra saw the outlines of flesh, a shadow of fur, and then Bonedog shook himself and he was a great gray dog with a skull like a battering ram and a blaze of white across his chest. His tail was still a narrow, bony whip but there was fur across it. He had immense jowls and when he looked up at Marra, they all sagged into a gigantic smile.

'Oh, Bonedog,' she said. He licked her hand and she could feel his tongue, not quite substantial but more than it had been.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“The fundamental task of fantasy is to transform an impossible satisfaction that no one could attain into a prohibited satisfaction that becomes unattainable due to the fantasized obstacle that prevents the subject from having its object. Fantasy plays the central role in the psyche because it performs this operation. Even though fantasy is primarily unconscious, it enables people to believe consciously in the possibility of a satisfaction that they cannot have. It allows them to come into touch with a transcendent impossibility that makes everyday life bearable. Through fantasy, one can imagine an enjoyment without lack, but this is possible only via the creation of an obstacle that bears responsibility for the failure to attain this enjoyment. This process enables one to enjoy the obstacle while believing oneself to be enjoying the prospect of having the desired object itself.”
― Todd McGowan, The Racist Fantasy: Unconscious Roots of Hatred

“Not only does the immigrant perform work that citizens will not perform for a wage that they will not accept, according to the racist fantasy, the immigrant does so without acceding to the rules that govern the social order. The immigrant as an immigrant has the status of one who doesn’t belong to the social order. The social restrictions that apply to citizens don’t apply to immigrants, who have no clear place within the social order. Although being undocumented seems to carry nothing but disadvantages, from the perspective of the racist fantasy, it signifies the clear advantage of benefiting from the social order without being subjected to its laws. Undocumented immigrants have a much greater fantasmatic power due to their lack of documentation, which indicates how the law fails to sink its teeth into them.

The more that immigrants become marginalized and fall outside the social order—the more they exist in an oppressed situation—the more they appear to partake in the enjoyment that the racist fantasy attributes to them. Far from eliminating their access to enjoyment, their oppressed status signifies their access to it in the racist fantasy.”
― Todd McGowan, The Racist Fantasy: Unconscious Roots of Hatred

“Reviewed by Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite
Another Time in a Vacuum by Roland Burisch is a witty fantasy
adventure of anachronistic proportions. Meet Monty, a timetraveling
historian who travels back to 1673. Imagine the thrill of
excitement that greets him as he meets one of history’s most
important diarists, Samuel Pepys. He musters the courage to tell
Pepys that he has important information, but the eminent diarist is
suspicious that he could be an extortionist. Monty tells Pepys that
he is from the future and that he is familiar with the contents of
Pepys’s diaries. Monty introduces the diarist to his mobile phone to
lend authenticity to his claim. Monty remembers that Sir Isaac
Newton is alive in the same period, with which Pepys concurs,
unless Newton is beheaded for heresy. But Monty tells him that
Newton will go down in history for his work. This fills Pepys with
disbelief. Monty brings the two men into the present, and these two
historical figures will witness the contemporary period with awe and
bewilderment, an adventure that they will fill with many questions.
Another Time in a Vacuum is a fascinating time-travel adventure
that is intelligent, witty, and at times, sad. While this novel takes
the idea of time travel as an essential element in the storyline, it is
more about a comparative look at the lifestyle and norms of the
past with the present. It is inevitable that the two famous men will
not understand Monty initially. But Roland Burisch equips his plot
with confidence in the intelligence of Pepys and Newton. They
eventually understand why Monty exists in their time without many
ramifications about the historical timeline getting altered. Burisch
wisely hinges on the mechanics of dialogue and the interaction of
the trio for the plot. It is also one of the reasons why this novel
works because you like the quirks of the characters. They are wise,
funny, and fish out of water. It sounds like a story that you will
enjoy reading. It is.”
― Roland Burisch, Another TIME in a VACUUM

“Reviewed by Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite
Another Time in a Vacuum by Roland Burisch is a witty fantasy
adventure of anachronistic proportions. Meet Monty, a timetraveling
historian who travels back to 1673. Imagine the thrill of
excitement that greets him as he meets one of history’s most
important diarists, Samuel Pepys. He musters the courage to tell
Pepys that he has important information, but the eminent diarist is
suspicious that he could be an extortionist. Monty tells Pepys that
he is from the future and that he is familiar with the contents of
Pepys’s diaries. Monty introduces the diarist to his mobile phone to
lend authenticity to his claim. Monty remembers that Sir Isaac
Newton is alive in the same period, with which Pepys concurs,
unless Newton has been beheaded for heresy. But Monty tells him that
Newton will go down in history for his work. This fills Pepys with
disbelief. Monty brings the two men into the present, and these two
historical figures will witness the contemporary period with awe and
bewilderment, an adventure that they will fill with many questions.
Another Time in a Vacuum is a fascinating time-travel adventure
that is intelligent, witty, and at times, sad. While this novel takes
the idea of time travel as an essential element in the storyline, it is
more about a comparative look at the lifestyle and norms of the
past with the present. It is inevitable that the two famous men will
not understand Monty initially. But Roland Burisch equips his plot
with confidence in the intelligence of Pepys and Newton. They
eventually understand why Monty exists in their time without many
ramifications about the historical timeline getting altered. Burisch
wisely hinges on the mechanics of dialogue and the interaction of
the trio for the plot. It is also one of the reasons why this novel
works because you like the quirks of the characters. They are wise,
funny, and fish out of water. It sounds like a story that you will
enjoy reading. It is.”
― Roland Burisch, Another TIME in a VACUUM

“I meet my sisters in front of Madoc's stables, where silver-shod faerie horses are penned up beside enormous toads ready to be saddled and bridled and reindeer with broad antlers hung with bells.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Vivi picks stalks of ragwort that grow near the water troughs. After finding three that meet her specifications, she lifts the first and blows on it, saying, 'Steed, rise and bear us where I command.'

With those words, she tosses the stalk to the ground, and it becomes a raw-boned yellow pony with emerald eyes and a mane that resembles lacy foliage. It makes an odd keening neigh. She throws down two more stalks, and moments later three ragwort ponies snort the air and snuffle at the ground. They look a little like sea horses and will ride over land and sky, according to Vivi's command, keeping their seeming for hours before collapsing back into weeds.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Faerie exists beside and below mortal towns, in the shadows of mortal cities, and at their rotten, derelict, worm-eaten centres. Faeries live in hills and valleys and barrows, in alleys and abandoned mortal buildings.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“You must learn to look through the dark and not at it,' a voice seemed to say in her ear.”
― Beryl Netherclift, The Snow Ghosts

“We ride over the cliffs and then the sea, watching mermaids leap in the spangled waves and selkies rolling along the surf. Past the fog perpetually surrounding the islands and concealing them from mortals.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Unless he turns his clothes inside out, which I am fairly confident he doesn't know to do, he'll never find us.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince