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The Q QUOTES

The Q QUOTES

1 " Quincy and Fisher walked through all this in silence. Silence was the most common stock-in-trade between them, and the portfolio of their friendship was thick with it. So, without words, they stepped across the streets, their feet pressing the pavement with the same sounds, their toes turned just so; they knew what life was like at each other's side. Sometimes he would speak, or she would, small offerings on the altar of their joint survival. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

2 " If she could walk away, she would; her pride demanded at least that much from her. But Quincy knew that her heart beat with the rhythm of the presses in the back room, that her blood ran black with ink, and that her mind filled with reams of numbers and projections and plans. The Q was Quincy's only vital organ, so she would play the game. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

3 " But Quincy knew that her heart beat with the rhythm of the presses in the back room, that her blood ran black with ink, and that her mind filled with reams of numbers and projections and plans. The Q was Quincy's only vital organ. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

4 " The music spread out of the f-shaped holes, spilling over the floor, easing and pulling, and Quincy gave herself to the personality of the sound. It was safe. It was straightforward.

The sound of the violin was all the humanity that Quincy could stand. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

5 " Quincy ducked through a small alleyway between buildings and worked her confident way through the backstreets. The route was abundantly full of refuse bins, forgotten crates, and various laundry, hanging from back windows. Several cats, the local monarchy that Qunicy had long been acquainted with, were granting them passage while sitting atop the maze of half-broken fences. Quincy saluted a black female—the reigning queen—and passed through a slender passage between two buildings, leading them out onto Fair Street and its adjoining park in a manner of minutes. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

6 " Forgetting Arch, forgetting tailors and backstreets and cats, Quincy lost herself in the magnificent architecture built to house even more magnificent machines. The train Quincy loved: its perfection of movement and speed and sound; its possibility and potential; its ability to efficiently transport the masses. It was here that Quincy always found the gears of her own mind worked loose, set back in place. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

7 " If I owned a volume, I would beg you to print ten thousand copies on your presses and distribute them in the streets of every city in Europe.”

“You’d have to show me a way to make a profit from it first,” Quincy responded evenly.

“Arch tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, returning to his book as he answered, “I would build an argument so enticing and passionate you couldn’t deny me. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

8 " Quincy made a disagreeable noise; she had never cared for months whose names sounded frivolous. April was the worst of the lot. February was a close second. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

9 " By the time he returned to her small room, Quincy’s shock, like a typewriter, had come to the end of tis row, and her internal bell had rung. She was up, removing the blackened wallpaper to see what damage the wall had sustained. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

10 " When they exited onto the street, Arch hailed a hansom, and Quincy slipped inside before he could offer her any more chivalry. There was just enough room in the carriage for two reasonably sized egos, and any tendency towards Lancelotism, Quincy told herself, was to be avoided. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

11 " Like a spring pulled too tight, Quincy cocked her small chin up in the direction fo the voice. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

12 " She froze. Several silent moments passed between them. More than one stranger walked around their still figures. She tried to speak, but Quincy was mortified from feeling at such a severe disadvantage, something she had not felt since she was a little girl on the streets, a little girl in the foundling factory, a little girl who had sworn that she would never feel this way again. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

13 " But love?” She made a face. “It’s an all-encompassing machine, with no parts but the weak human heart. You give everything to it with no promise of security in return. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

14 " Amazing how often the words fool and love go together,” Quincy drawled. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

15 " As they walked down the stairs to the wide sidewalk, Quincy said, “I never thought you for a churchgoer, Arch.”
“You forced me to it, St. Claire. Some demons drive a man to the bottle, some demons drive a man to the church. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

16 " Do you play?”

Quincy jerked her eyes away from the instrument to find Lord Arch watching her, his mouth drawn in a very familiar straight line.

“Only for myself, now that Ezekiel is dead,” she answered truthfully.

“How delightful,” he said, smiling, his handsome face giving way to the refined wrinkles of his age. “Why don’t you play for yourself now, and I’ll just listen? "

― Beth Brower , The Q

17 " After some time, Fisher said, “Per aspera ad astra.”

Quincy turned towards him. “What’s that?”

“Latin. It means to the stars through difficulties.”

By natural extension of the conversation, she looked up, viewing the faint points of light fighting down through a soft haze. “Does anyone make it, Fisher? To the stars?”

“I believe we have, Quince. We’ve seen the worst but known the best. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

18 " She kept thinking that a time like this required words—one million lines of type, laid out perfectly, with no ink stains, no backward letters—to say what should be said. But that couldn’t happen, and she didn’t know what else to put in its place. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

19 " The station was filling with more movement and noise and light, as the morning sun began to bounce and rattle off the brass and glass of the building. Quincy pushed through the crowd, her eyes towards the ground, her feet guiding her out of the station. She only lifted her head when she came out onto the sidewalk. And there, before her, a familiar figure was waiting, standing with a paper in one hand, watching the flow of traffic. He saw her and waved in silence, somehow knowing it wasn’t a morning for many words.

“Did Fisher tell you to come?” Quincy said, her voice sounding so unlike itself—sounding yearning.

“No,” Arch replied. Then he shook his head as confirmation, as if it were an important truth she needed to know two ways. “But I knew this was his train.”

“You missed him.”

“I didn’t come for him. I came for you. "

― Beth Brower , The Q

20 " Arch leaned back into his chair, but he was entertaining a smile. “There are few things more tedious than a friend who will not graciously receive.”

Quincy could have explained that nine years of poverty might have something to do with it, but instead she just replied, “You must find me maddening, then.”

Arch’s mouth twitched. “You, ma chérie, are something else entirely. "

― Beth Brower , The Q