Цитаты из книг — Андреа Стюарт

“My own convictions had scattered to the winds like seeds, and there was no fertile ground on which to plant them again.”

“There will always be people who hate you,” I said. “They don’t need to write a well-reasoned essay on it. Perhaps they hated your father, or they lost someone because of the shards, or they just don’t like the look of your face. You’re the Emperor. You’re powerful. People have to have an opinion on you. They won’t all be…

There was something both sad and wistful in his tone, as though he’d found something he’d long wanted but knew he would lose again. 

“Even so – he’s not a bad person. I know he was careless with the people of the island, even cruel, but he was a decent father. When I wanted to learn how to fight, he set me up with tutors. He never tried to make me do the things I didn’t want to. Yes, he suggested that I do them plenty, but I think he knew I just wasn’t…

Хотя, если бы я скрыл правду, было бы только хуже. Реальность - суровая госпожа, но от нее нельзя отмахиваться.

It’s hard to remake one’s view of the world, to admit to complacency. I thought remaking myself for you was hard enough, but doing that was something I wanted. I didn’t want to realize how much I’ve hurt the people around me, and that’s what confronting my beliefs meant. We all tell ourselves stories of who we are, and in…

“I’d told Emahla once that I would fight off a thousand armies just to be at her side. She’d laughed and had kissed my cheek. “Jovis, you’re not a fighter.” “I would be for you.”

Them together – it had never been Ranami’s end goal, not the way it was for Phalue. Ranami loved Phalue – she felt it to her very bones – but there were other things to consider. And this wasn’t something she could explain without hurting her. She knew, when she looked at Phalue, that it wasn’t the same for her.

“He laid the key on the table like I was a dog and the key a treat. He’d give the treat to me, yes, but only if I performed first.”

“You were quiet. For once in your life, you were quiet. And when I sat next to you to help, shoulder to shoulder, I could feel a future in that silence. You always say so many things. Always, always talking. So many stories! But it wasn’t until you were silent that I could feel the truth of you beneath all the words, all…

“Father didn’t think I was enough. My memory was lacking. But I knew who I was now. I was Lin. I was the Emperor’s daughter. And I would show him that even broken daughters could wield power.”

“I couldn’t just sit around waiting for my father to die, hoping that if I learned enough, he would choose me as heir. Too many variables, too many things that could go wrong. And Father had taught me this much at least. Do not rely on that which you cannot control.”

“Phalue has always cast off lovers the way an unlucky fisherman throws back fish that are too small.” Ranami knew she was not a small fish, not to Phalue. She knew it surely as she knew all the back alleys of the city. “It’s been three years,” she said. “What fisherman holds on to a fish that long that he does not intend…

“I felt the way a rabbit must when it feels the noose about its neck. And like a rabbit, I’d keep kicking.”

“Listening is an art. It’s not so much sometimes in letting the other person speak as in asking them the right questions.”

“Ranami reminded Phalue of a spotted dove – all soft and brown, quiet and elegant, with round black eyes that evoked gentleness. But there was a thing of sharp edges beneath the feathers, and sometimes Phalue could feel herself brushing up against it if she dug too deep.”