Home > Work > In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2) QUOTES

In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2) QUOTES

1 " All things are strange which are worth knowing. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

2 " We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

3 " Did you never wonder why the old books are so full of dragons chasing after maidens? The serpents think the girls are orphans, and long to get them away in a lair so that they may grow up strong and tall. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

4 " A dragon looks like a girl when it is young. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

5 " I see you go bare-shod. This is most likely extremely sensible. Shoes are no end of trouble for girls. . . . How many have danced to death in slippers of silk and glass and fur and wood? Too many to count—the graveyards, they are so full these days. You are very wise to let your soles become grubby with mud, to let them grow their own slippers of moss and clay and calluses. This is far preferable to shoes which may become wicked at any moment. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

6 " I looked at this man and thought: Oh, how we are going to hurt each other. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

7 " We treat our stone wives with much more care than they treat their warm ones, anyway. I personally dust mine once a week, and I know Khaamil gives them presents when I am not looking. These are yours - they are in your care, and you must be faithful. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

8 " they climbed their ladders to wheedle and prune the trees into holiness "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

9 " There is always a moment when stories end, a moment when everything is blue and black and silent, and the teller does not want to believe it is over, and the listener does not, and so they both hold their breath and hope fervently as pilgrims that it is not over, that there are more tales to come, more and more, fitted together like a long chain coiled in the hand. They hold their breath; the trees hold theirs, the air and the ice and the wood and the Gate. But no breath can be held forever, and all tales end. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

10 " This is my heart—carry it with you. I will dream of you in the dark, and you will taste it in my tea, and feel it in my shoes. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

11 " Love rarely waits for permission. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

12 " Everything good in the world has feathers and wings and claws. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

13 " I think that one morning, the Papess woke in her tower, and her blankets were so warm, and the sun was so golden, she could not bear it. I think she woke, and dressed, and washed her face in cold water, and rubbed her shaven head. I think she walked among her sisters, and for the first time saw that they were so beautiful, and she loved them. I think she woke up one morning of all her mornings, and found that her heart was as white as a silkworm, and the sun was clear as glass on her brow, and she believed then that she could live, and hold peace in her hand like a pearl. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

14 " In the beginning there was Dust, and in the end there will be Dust, and in the middle there is Dust, Dust, Dust! "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

15 " This maze is laid out such that should you step through the correct path, by its end you will have learned the most extraordinary dance, such that any coronation would be proud to see you at the height of its feast, such that any holy dervish would weep and call you his devotion."
"I think that is very strange—"
"All things are strange which are worth knowing. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

16 " I've always had enough, even if my enough and your enough are as different as an elephant and a minaret. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

17 " What is it, Master Calligrapher, that little girls do in the way that spiders weave?" sleeve asked primly.
The Calligrapher coughed, for his room was very dusty, and there was dust even on his eyelashes, and said: "It is right and proper," he said, "for a girl to read as many books as there are bricks in this city, and then, when she is finished, to begin to write new ones which are made out of the old ones, as this city is made of those stones. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

18 " Is there anything which does not do as you say?" the girl asked archly. He blushed.

"You know my cry. I do not know yours," he mumbled, not meeting her gaze. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

19 " The calligrapher coughed, for his room was very dusty, and there was dust even on his eyelashes, and said: “It is right and proper,” he said, “for a girl to read as many books as there are bricks in this city, and then, when she is finished, to begin to write new ones which are made out of the old ones, as this city is made of those stones. "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)

20 " The Sirens flicked their wings at the wall, inscribing it with their own blue ink: Even in penance is beauty; blessed are all the ocean’s drowned! "

― Catherynne M. Valente , In the Cities of Coin and Spice (The Orphan's Tales, #2)