Jacqueline Carey Quotations

I have always loved fantasy; I think probably stepping through the wardrobe with Lucy in C.S. Lewis's 'Narnia Chronicles' was my first exposure when I was really little.

Having a literary agent makes a huge difference in submitting work. My agent has access and tremendous passion.

When I started really writing fantasy, one of the things I noticed was a real absence of sexuality in the genre at all. And it's such a profound part of the human experience that it's a really big thing to leave out.

I started a novel in the back of a notebook, and it was great because it looked like I was taking notes. And I just, I kept it up, it was sort of fantasy, it was part soap opera. It was utterly dreadful, but that's how I got hooked.

I don't really consider my work, on the whole, 'fringe' in my own mind; science fiction and fantasy have been pretty solidly in the mainstream for a while.

One must gauge one's trust carefully.

Truly, it is in loss that we learn a thing's true value.

What is fear but courage's shadow?

Some chains are forged for us - those are the hardest to bear.

Beauty is at its most poignant when the cold hand of Death holds poised to wither it imminently.

Well, I was living it, but a shared dream half-lived is a hollow thing

Are you a minor character in my tale, or am I a lesser figure in yours?

Love is hard, harder than steel and thrice as cruel. It is inexorable as the tides, and life and death alike follow in its wake.

There are those who do not hold that there is any innate goodness to mankind. To them I say, had you lived my life, you would not believe it. I have known the depths to which mortals are capable of descending, and I have seen the heights. I have seen how kindness and compassion may grow in the unlikeliest of places, as the mountain flower forces its way through the stern rock.

And Kushiel sends no punishment that we are not fit to bear.

I can see patterns in events, and behaviors; in mathematics, I follow slower

All paths are present, always... and we can but choose among them.

Stand at the crossroads if you will, but if you'll not choose, I'll move on without you

A nervous silence loosens tongues

To recongnize that the treachery of one member of a house does not taint all born within it

Even a stunted tree reaches for sunlight.

What's the point of being a grown-up if you can't indulge the kid inside you every now and then?

We speak of stories ending, when in truth it is we who end. The stories go on and on.

Like a falling star, he descended on the Tarbh Cró, a Cassiline berserker, his sword biting and slashing like a silver snake.

After you, it's all cheap tequila.

And for a price, I will pretend absolutely nothing.

A little truth seasons a lie like salt.

I had begun to think my ripening body would wither untasted on the vine.

For every victory there is a price.

To my surprise, Joscelin rose. ‘Phedre-’ He began, then halted. Sitting below him, I watched him smile to himself, quiet and private. ‘Phedre yields with a willow’s grace,’ he said softly. ‘And endures with the strength of mountains. Without her, life would be calm; and yet lack all meaning.

I know what you are. I've always known from the beginning, Kushiel's Chosen. It is folly, to make claim on one whom the gods have marked for their own. And unlike the others, I am no fool, to grasp at that which burns to the touch. What you have given..." she raised one hand, palm upward, the garnet seal dangling at her wrist, "... I hold in an open hand.

Fear and lies fester in darkness. The truth may wound, but it cuts clean.

It's funny, because in deference to conventional wisdom, I spent my struggling writer years trying to suppress my naturally baroque literary voice and write clean, spare prose. I finally gave up and embraced my baroque tendencies when I wrote the Kushiel series.

There are those who hold that there is a pattern to all that is said and done in this world, that no thing happens without reason nor out of time. As to that, I cannot speak, for I have seen too many threads cut short to believe it, but of a surety, I have seen too the weft of my fate shuttled on the loom. If there is a pattern, I do not think there is anyone among us who can stand at a great enough distance to discern it; yet I will not say that it is not so.

The tapestry of history is woven of many threads.

True friendship must be akin to romance, I think. only without all the anguish and anxiety.

We are meant to taste of life ... and drink the cup of it to the dregs, bitter and sweet alike.

There is no folly like the folly of the wise.

It is a comfort, in anguish, to be reminded of the scale of one's own troubles against the mighty breadth of the world.

Genius requires an audience.

Night breeds its own sort of anticipation.

Clearly, Im drawn to characters with inner conflicts.

We may not have demon fathers dangling offers of infernal power before us, but everyone understands what it means to struggle with temptation or resist the urge to give in to our baser natures.

Grief heals ... unshed tears fester like a canker in the soul.

Pain obliterates everything else. In pain, there is only the eternal present.

Pain redeems all. It is the awareness of life, a reminder of death.

And having once chosen, never to seek to return to the crossroads of that decision-for even if one chooses wrongly, the choice cannot be unmade.

That was the problem ... with trusting to the written word ... We were human, mortal and fallible. We forgot, we made errors, argued ambiguities, and twisted meanings to suit our own ends. And in doing so, mayhap we reshaped the gods themselves.

There is as much deception in noise as there is in silence

I preferred a hard truth to a well-meant lie.

The harp sounds at each passing breeze, but that does not mean the tune is masterfully played.

It is not everyday that one learns an entire militia has sworn unbeknownest to obey you

Wars come and go; politics endure.

My lord. It is too much, and not enough

Spontaneity is the province of youth

It's funny how despair can soon become an old companion

I wish sometimes that the gods would either choose better, or make their wishes clearer

This is the secret that none dares tell who fights for a cause. Dying, we are all alike.

If you will not die for us, you cannot ask us to die for you.

If I had to fall from Cassiel's grace, at least I know it took a courtesan worthy of Kings to do it.

I would that I could have stopped time and preserved that day forever. It was a perfect day. There was the shadow of sorrow, yes. It would always be there. But that was the nature of life. The bright mirror and the dark, reflecting one another. And today there was so much brightness.

Happiness is the highest form of wisdom.

It is not wise to meddle with D'Angelines in matters of love.

For this too I learned, that a storyteller's tale may end, but history goes on always. These events, so distant in legend, play a part in shaping the very events we witness about us, each and every day.

Nothing spoils idle pleasure like too much awareness

Garner knowledge, by any means possible

Only insofar as you enjoy being sorry, my dear, which, while it is a considerable amount, occurs only after the fact, thus making it a singularly ineffective deterrent, yes?

Surely if we knew what bitterness fate held in store, we would shrink back in fear and let the cup of life pass us by untasted.

To have a traitor for an ally is to have an enemy in waiting

Yes my lord, but questions are dangerous, for they have answers

It is a fine line, in all of us, between civilization and savagery. To any who think they would never cross it, I can only say, if you have never known what it is to be utterly betrayed and abandoned, you cannot know how close it is.

Battle for the sake of honor may be a fine thing for bards to sing of, but it is no way to preserve one's homeland

It's the same questions we ask of our existence, and the answer is always the same. The mystery lies not in the question nor the answer, but in the asking and answering themselves, over and over again, and the end is engendered in the beginning.

Let the warriors clamor after gods of blood and thunder; love is hard, harder than steel and thrice as cruel.

When Love cast me out, it was Cruelty who took pity upon me

Stupid to speak of blame when the wills of the immortals are involved.

But slight mistakes accumulate, and grow to gross errors if unchecked.

Whip us 'till we're on the floor, we'll turn around and ask for more, we're Phèdre's Boys! We like to hurt, we like to bleed, daily floggings do we need, we're Phèdre's Boys! Man or woman, we don't care, give us twins we'll take the pair! We're Phèdre's Boys! ...But just because we let you beat us, doesn't mean you can defeat us, we're Phèdre's Boys!

We pay for sins we do not remember, and seek to do a will we can scarce fathom. That is what it is, to be a god's chosen.

Soon never comes soon enough to a young child.

That which yields is not always weak.

Those that yield are not always weak

There's more to clothing than just adornment. It does more than merely change how the world perceives us. It changes how we perceive ourselves.

Your dreaming self seeks to tell you something your waking ears will not hear

Oh love and hate are two sides of the same blade

There are patterns which emerge in one's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme

All exiles carry a map within them that points the way homeward.

Joscelin, is love supposed to make you feel like you’re sick and dying, and mad enough to hit someone and drunk with joy, and your heart’s a boulder n your chest trying to burst into a thousand pieces all at once?” “Mm-hmm.” He finished his ale. “That would be love.

Sidonie, I know you don't remember it, but you once promised to trust me beyond all reason. And I swear to you that all that I am, all that I possess, including this gem-stone, is yours. I need you. I can't do this alone. Forget your memories. Look into your heart. And if you can find somewhere there, some lingering spark of trust that owes naught to reason, I beg you to speak the word written here.

It is my observations, though, that happiness limits the amount of suffering one is willing to inflict upon others

If you thought better of me, you would not be so surprised

There are those who are awkward in the face of sorrow, fearing to say the wrong thing; to them, I say, there is no wrong in comfort, ever. A kind word, a consoling arm ... these things are ever welcome.

It's funny, how one can look back on a sorrow one thought one might well die of at the time, and know that one had not yet reckoned the tenth part of true grief.

I wondered if he could ever understand that it was a blessing, not a sin, to be graced with more than one love. It could be complicated; of course it could be complicated. And it opened one up to the possibility of more pain and loss. Still, it was a blessing I would never relinquish. Love, genuine love, was always a cause for joy.

Love child!" What else? You will find it and lose it, again and again. And with each finding and each loss, you will become more than before. What you make of it is yours to choose.

The pain of the flesh is naught to that of the heart

There is no fulfillment that is not made sweeter for the prolonging of desire

All knowledge is worth having

We are all these things [...]. Pride, desire, compassion, cleverness, belligerence, fruitfulness, loyalty...and guilt. But above it all stands love. And if we desire to be more than human, that is the star by which we must set our sights.

Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best?