Tanith Lee - You Quotes

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If you run away from trouble, it always follows.' Rather my impression, too. Though that never stopped me trying.

Tanith Lee
Never be afraid of a cliché, if it expresses what you wish to say.

Tanith Lee
The dictate of the light says: Know yourself and what you are. The dark replies, By all means, but then become afraid.

Tanith Lee
I know the old ways. There's nothing evil there, only strange, and not even strange when you know it.

Tanith Lee
Now you understand, Rarm said to me. It was the last cut against yourself to become convinced of your own hideousness. You held to it and nurtured it, and even identified with the devil goddess of Orash in your determination to be accursed. And it never occurred to you that perhaps you saw a false image under the mountain.

Tanith Lee
Sickness, the serpent, is coming to bite you,
Death, the old dark man, is coming to carry you off,
Rest uneasy, you stinking carrion, on your gold beds.

Tanith Lee
Go nowhere on a horse that fades, for your dreams will betray you.

Tanith Lee
I see you laugh, and rightly so. What is this silly old fool rambling on about? Good for you. Never respect years, only deeds.

Tanith Lee
Uasti was a good teacher, he said. She made you look a little way into yourself, see what you could become.

Tanith Lee
I raised my arms as if in prayer and heard the mutter of response behind me. Then I scattered the dried grains, red and brown and black, and studied the patterns they formed on the stone ledge before Sibbos. This is not such a mystic thing. You see what it is sensible to see, or else you interpret what you see so that the meaning comes out as you want it.

Tanith Lee
Sometimes, Skorous, Draco said, you are a fool.
Sometimes I am not alone in that.

Tanith Lee
Like most loners, said Moddik, you carry the seeds of violent authority. Loners need to be bossy. They quickly learn it's the only method they have of shoving people off their backs.

Tanith Lee
I will draw you back to me. You shall see. By a chain of stars.

Tanith Lee
Spells are words, and words are merely noises. You are the sorceress, not your instruction. Don't limit yourself.

Tanith Lee
Now there was that look of waiting, and submission—not the frenzy of the stadium, but the quiet sleep-trance of belief. Something stirred in me at it, as I realized I had them in my palm. I stood very still in my white and black, holding the copper things in my hands, and then I began to walk between them toward the god. And I laughed at the god as I went toward him. You—what are you? And he had no answer for me, for here it was the priest who was the power, not the god, poor empty stone.

Tanith Lee
Well now, he said, was I as good as you were when you were me?

Tanith Lee
When you fell in the sea, you should have heard them cheer. I made them rope the yard and fish you up. I said a ducking in water washes the witch-skill out of a woman until next full moon, and it would be bad luck to let you drown. How about that for a clever story? They'd believe anything if you make it sound silly enough.

Tanith Lee
I hate the way, once you start to know someone, care about them, their behavior can distress you, even when it's unreasonable and not your fault, even if you were really trying to be careful, tactful.

Tanith Lee