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Why didn't you tell me to take Attolia's advice from the beginning? I thought you should figure it out. What you learn for yourself, you will know forever, said Eugenides. Pol used to say that, said Sounis, surprised. I learned it from him. I just wish to my god that I had his patience for the process.

Megan Whalen Turner

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Megan Whalen Turner
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: January 1
Novelist
Writer
Used
Learned
Take
Forever
Learn
Surprised
Wish
Patience
Process
Figure
Tell
Figures
Didn
Beginning
Thought
Advice

More quotes by Megan Whalen Turner

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He looked at their shabby clothes in puzzlement. “We were traveling anonymously for safety—” explained the magus. “But surely—” “—and then we were robbed on the road.” “Ah,” said the king, “the danger in being anonymous.
Megan Whalen Turner
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Because you do not believe? Oh, no, said Attolia bitterly. Because I believe and do not choose to worship.
Megan Whalen Turner
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And the Earth had no name. The gods know themselves and have no need of names. It is man who names all things, even gods.
Megan Whalen Turner
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The Magus must had eyes like a thief because he told Pol to stop and dismount to walk alongside me, one hand resting just above my knee ready to shake me if I fell asleep. He shook hard and resorted to pinching periodically.
Megan Whalen Turner
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No 'Glory shall be your reward' for me. Oh, no, for me, it is, 'Stop whining' and 'Go to bed'.
Megan Whalen Turner
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I'll stop shouting. I won't sit down. I might need to throw more inkpots.
Megan Whalen Turner
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Are you badly hurt? Hideously, said the king, without sounding injured at all. I am disemboweled. My insides may in an instant become my outsides as I stand here before you.
Megan Whalen Turner
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On the bed, Eugenides stirred restlessly. Upset at the sight of blood? he said. Not my wife, Ornon. Your blood, the ambassador pointed out. Eugenides glanced at the hook on his arm and conceded the point. Yes, he said. He seemed lost in memory. The room was quiet.
Megan Whalen Turner
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That is ridiculous, she said. The king agreed. Like falling in love with a landslide. Only you could fail to notice.
Megan Whalen Turner
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The queen was settling on the edge of the bed, ungainly with hesitation and at the same time exquisite in her grace, like a heron landing in a treetop.
Megan Whalen Turner
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Her queen danced like a flame in the wind, and the mercurial king like the weight at the center of the earth.
Megan Whalen Turner
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What a strange world it is, where prisoners are left their weapons and the written word is a mortal danger.
Megan Whalen Turner
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She was the stone-faced queen, then and ever after. She had needed the mask to rule, and she had been glad to have it. She wondered if Eugenides was glad of his.
Megan Whalen Turner
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If we truly trust no one, we cannot survive.
Megan Whalen Turner
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The room was quiet, the others flicking glances at me. I ignored them. After years in Sounis's palaces being eyed with disgust by my uncle and my own father and courtier after courtier, I assure you I am unrivaled at pretending not to notice other people's glances.
Megan Whalen Turner
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Before you make a decision, he said, I want you to know that I love you.
Megan Whalen Turner
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I sometimes believe his lies are the truth, but I have never mistaken his truth for a lie.
Megan Whalen Turner
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In the afternoon, the king and queen sat to hear the business of their kingdom. At least, the queen sat to hear the business Costis was still not sure what the king was doing.
Megan Whalen Turner
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How do you know that, Philo, dear? But Philologos had had enough of being condescended to. Because, Lamion, I am not as dumb as you think I am, even if you are. By the time Lamion had parsed this to make sure that there was in fact an insult at the end of it, Hilarion had laid a restraining hand on his arm.
Megan Whalen Turner
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Coming from light into the dark, he was looking ahead of him, not down at me. My lunge, as I came to my feet, took him in the chest as I drove the sword upward with the strength of my legs. Even rusted, the sword slid through him, and I found, for the first time, how easy it is to kill a man.
Megan Whalen Turner