Garth Nix - Abhorsen (2003)

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When the Dead do walk, seek water's run,
For this the Dead will always shun.
Swift river's best or broadest lake
To ward the Dead and haven make.
If water fails thee, fire's thy friend;
If neither guards, it will be thy end.

Garth Nix

The most important thing is to be true to yourself, however you feel, and not try to feel or behave differently because you think you should, or someone has told you how you must feel. But do think about it. Unexamined feelings lead to all kinds of trouble.

Garth Nix

Nick shook his head and found to his surprise that he did have tears left after all. He wasn't surprised by a talking cat. The world was crumbling around him and anything could happen.

Garth Nix

Just like the Perimeter! It never rains but it pours," declared the Major.

Garth Nix

I have never known what to tell anybody. Except that it is better to do something than nothing, even if the cost is great.

Garth Nix

I think I might love you too, Charter help me, but now is-

Garth Nix

As for you, Private, if you mention a word of this to anyone, I'll feed you to the cat thing here. Understand?" "Yum," said Mogget. "Yes, sir!" mumbled the telephone operator, his hands shaking as he tried to smother the burning wreckage of his switchboard with a fire blanket.

Garth Nix

So are you saying that somebody went to all the trouble to make you a crypt a thousand years ago on the off chance that you might turn up one day, walk in, and have a convenient heart attack?

Garth Nix

Wake me when what terrible thing is going to happen, happens, or if it appears I might get wet.

Garth Nix

She got up, grew her legs longer to get her body out of the water and shook herself dry. Then she wandered off, following a zigzag path along the border between Life and Death, her tail wagging so hard, the tip of it beat the river into a froth behind her.

Garth Nix

Sam swallowed. The dire pronouncement echoed in his ears, imbued with the faint hint of the Free Magic power that was contained within the cat form on his shoulder. He slapped Sprout on the rump to get her going; then he said the first thing that came into his head.
"Mogget. Shut up."

Garth Nix

I can see time," whispered Mogget, so softly that his words were lost.

Garth Nix

"Time and death sleep side by side," said the Dog. "Both are in Astrael's Domain."

Garth Nix

Five Great Charters knit the land
together linked hand and hand.
One in the people who wear the crown
Two in the folk who keep the Dead down
Three and Five became stone and mortar
Four sees all in frozen water.

Garth Nix

The Clayr Saw a sword and so I was. Remember the Wallmakers. Remember Me.

Garth Nix

"Choosers will be beggars if the begging's not their choosing," said the Dog.

Garth Nix

Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?

Garth Nix

I am the Disreputable Dog. Or Disreputable Bitch, if you want to get technical. When are we going for a walk?

Garth Nix

I'll sing you a song of the long ago -
Seven shine the shiners, oh!
What did the Seven do way back when?
Why, they wove the Charter then!
Five for the warp, from beginning to end.
Two for the woof, to make and mend.
That's the Seven, but what of the Nine-
What of the two who chose not to shine?
The Eighth did hide, hide all away,
But the Seven caught him and made him pay.
The Ninth was strong and fought with might,
But lone Orannis was put out of the light,
Broken in two and buried under hill,
Forever to lie there, wishing us ill.

Garth Nix

"I am a necromancer, but not of the common sort, while others of the art raise the dead, I lay them to rest - or try too - and those that will not rest I bind, for I am Abhorsen..."
He turned to the baby again and added, almost with a note of surprise, "Father of Sabriel."

Garth Nix

Yet when ancient forces stir, many things are woken.

Garth Nix

A year ago, I turned the final page of The Book of the Dead. I don't feel young any more.

Garth Nix

For everyone and everything, there is a time to die. Some do not know it, or would delay it, but its truth cannot be denied. Not when you look into the stars of the Ninth Gate.

Garth Nix

So I'll do that, and I'll do my best and if my best isn't good enough, at least I will have done everything I could, everything that is in me. I don't have to try to be someone else, someone I could never be.

Garth Nix