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Marie Brennan QUOTES

Marie Brennan QUOTES

1 " Matriarchy is a time-honored staple for any writer looking to invent an exotic society. "

― Marie Brennan

2 " Their characteristics are well-known. They're beautiful -- when they're not astoundingly ugly. They're both goddesses for men to worship, and demons for them to flee. They adore children, sometimes to the point of unhealthy obsession. They have a strong association with nature, from which they're often assumed to draw magical power. Their anger is a terrible thing to behold, and all the more fearsome because anything can spark it; the rules by which these creatures operate are not those of rational men. They are creatures of fanciful whim, and they never, ever, can be understood.

I'm talking, of course, about women. "

― Marie Brennan

3 " ... There may not be even two men living in the world whom I would have agreed to marry, certainly not on such short notice. But I do not need two; I only need one. "

― Marie Brennan , In the Labyrinth of Drakes (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #4)

4 " Jake accompanied us as well, having arrived in Akhia shortly before the excavation team departed. I did not tell him our destination until we were safely away from civilization, and found my caution abundantly justified: he whooped and danced about so much, he fell off his camel and broke his left arm. "

― Marie Brennan , In the Labyrinth of Drakes (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #4)

5 " Jake shrugged, in the way that only nine-year-old children can manage -- and usually male children at that, girls not being permitted the same kind of insouciance. "

― Marie Brennan , The Voyage of the Basilisk (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #3)

6 " The lack of a husband was, for some applicants, a selling point. I imagine many of my readers are aware of the awkward position in which governesses often find themselves -- or, rather, the awkward position into which their male employers often put them, for it does no one any service to pretend this happens by some natural and inexorable process, devoid of connection with anyone's behaviour. "

― Marie Brennan , The Voyage of the Basilisk (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #3)

7 " I have often found this to be true since, that matters which seem terribly important in the early days of such a journey (what will people back home say?) fade into triviality with the passage of time. "

― Marie Brennan , A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #1)

8 " One does not cease to treasure a gem simply because one owns another that is larger. "

― Marie Brennan , The Tropic of Serpents (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #2)

9 " Utopias bore me. I'm interested in constructing messy, complicated societies that are full of flaws and then saying, ooh, this is interesting, let's see what happens if I poke it here. And concurrently with this and the previous point, I'm interested in making up cultures that are different "

― Marie Brennan

10 " You may think you see plenty of stars, friend reader, but you are wrong. Night is both blacker and more brilliant than you can imagine, and the sky a glory that puts to shame the most splendid jewels at Renwick's. "

― Marie Brennan , A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #1)

11 " Your people understand the forest: how the animals behave, where to find them, and so on. I want something similar—but instead of the forest as a whole, I want to understand dragons. They are not only here, you know; there are dragons in the savannah—” Mekeesawa nodded. “Well, there are more than that, all over the world. They live in the mountains and on the plains and maybe even in the ocean. I want to know them as you know the creatures of this forest.”

“But why?” Mekeesawa asked. His eyes were still merry with laughter, but his question was serious. “You don’t live in all those places.”

With the amount of time I have spent traveling in my life, one might make the argument that I do live in all those places, if only temporarily. But Mekeesawa’s point was a good one, and not easily dismissed. The Moulish understood the creatures of the Green Hell because their survival depended on it; my survival did not depend on my traveling the globe to find dragons. (Indeed, it has on more than one occasion nearly been detrimental to my life expectancy.) How could I answer him?

Thinking back on the matter now, it is possible my only true answer to that question is now in its second volume, with more to come. These memoirs are not only an accounting of my life; they are an accounting *for* it. "

― Marie Brennan , The Tropic of Serpents (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #2)

12 " There is nothing in the world so enticing as that which you have been told you may not have. "

― Marie Brennan , The Tropic of Serpents (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #2)

13 " When I finally did confront Mr. Arcott, after my return to Falchester, he had the cheek to try and argue that his intellectual thievery had been a compliment and a favor. After all, it meant my work was good enough to be accepted into ibn Khattusi's series -- but of course they never would have taken a submission from a woman, so he submitted it on my behalf. What I said in reply is not fit to be printed here, as by then I had spent a good deal of time in the company of sailors, and had at my disposal a vocabulary not commonly available to ladies of quality. "

― Marie Brennan , The Voyage of the Basilisk (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #3)

14 " I wish it could have been otherwise. But in the end … this is part of our past, whether we are proud to admit it or not. Whatever our place is to be in the world, it must be a place we can claim with honesty, not one we slip into on the basis of a lie. "

― Marie Brennan , Turning Darkness Into Light (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #6)

15 " If you read the translation, know this: it is a work in progress. All such things are. Other scholars will come along, armed with a better comprehension of the language, other texts, the evidence of archaeology, and they will refine our words, or replace them entirely. We once thought that southern Anthiope was the homeland of my people; now we know it was their second home, as the Sanctuary we live in today is the third. We should not lament this alteration in our knowledge, but celebrate it. Our understanding should always change, always grow—even when that means the necessary destruction of what we knew before. "

― Marie Brennan , Turning Darkness Into Light (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #6)

16 " Wild animals. I had not, until that moment, put dragons in that class. I had thought them something apart. "

― Marie Brennan

17 " Consider what story you want to tell. Consider what tale should embody the spirit of our age, when people look back on this time. Will it be the tale of domination that some today sought to write? Or will it be the harmony whose passing my ancient brother immortalized in clay and gold? "

― Marie Brennan , Turning Darkness Into Light (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #6)

18 " Science is not separate from politics. As much as I would like it to be a pure thing, existing only in some intellectual realm unsullied by human struggle, it will always be entangled with the world we live in. "

― Marie Brennan , The Tropic of Serpents (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #2)

19 " I sometimes imagine there is a clerk behind a desk situated between the brain and the mouth. It is his job to examine utterances on their way out, and stamp them with approval or send them back for reconsideration. If such a clerk exists, mine must be very harried and overworked; and on occasion he puts his head down on the desk in despair, letting things pass without so much as a second glance. "

― Marie Brennan , In the Labyrinth of Drakes (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #4)

20 " I believed myself to be ready then; now, with the hindsight brought by greater age, I see myself for the naive and inexperienced young woman I was. We all begin in such a manner, though. There is no quick route to experience. "

― Marie Brennan , A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #1)