Top 100 Susan Dennard Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “Safi ignored him – he was clearly an idiot.”

— Susan Dennard

52. “The shanty soon ended, but Ryber kept pounding the drum and hollered, “‘The Maidens North of Lovats!’” – which Merik knew was her favorite song, since she was a maiden from north of Lovats.”

— Susan Dennard

53. “His thumb moved, back up her palm toward her wrist. His skin was rough. His touch was not.”

— Susan Dennard

54. “Even the greatest feats of man lose their luster when one’s head is filled with storm clouds.”

— Susan Dennard

55. “She did have regrets. Thousands of them, and the weight was too heavy for her to keep moving. She was a ship that could not sail, for its anchor – its thousands of anchors – locked it to the sea floor.”

— Susan Dennard

56. “And do all Hell-Bards waddle like a duck, or is it just you?”

— Susan Dennard

57. “To pile on the agony, once we reached Shantytown-a collection of shacks around the Exhibition that fed off the scraps of rich tourists – the ribbon on my bonnet decided today was the day it wanted freedom. It dangled before my face in a taunting display of rebellion.”

— Susan Dennard

58. “Sorry to make you wait!” Safi roared over the rapid four-beat race. Her legs were bared, her silk gown shredded, and she clutched a pitchfork to her stomach. “And sorry for the trouble on my ass!”

— Susan Dennard

59. “How is it,” Stix asked, “that men always seem to claim victory over the triumphs earned by women?”

— Susan Dennard

60. “They aren’t for disguise at all. You just didn’t want to leave behind your favorite book.”

— Susan Dennard

61. “And they fell. Together.”

— Susan Dennard

62. “And there it was – that was who she was. Split right down the middle, she bore her father’s strength, her father’s drive. She carried her mother’s compassion, her mother’s love for Nubrevna.”

— Susan Dennard

63. “As Aeduan walked onward, he was pleased to find he’d left a trail of muddy boot-prints throughout the house.”

— Susan Dennard

64. “Each Well was linked to one of the five elements: Aether, Earth, Water, Wind, or Fire.”

— Susan Dennard

65. “Heart-Threads are not fated, nor are they necessarily singular. Like any relationship, a Heart-Thread is a choice you make.”

— Susan Dennard

66. “People with different aims could always be pitted against one another.”

— Susan Dennard

67. “Then the earth boomed beneath her. It crunched and rocked, lifting her like a mother carries a child. All the way out of the water. All the way back to shore. Then the stones dropped Iseult into Aeduan’s arms.”

— Susan Dennard

68. “I’m a domna. I can smile at even the ugliest toad and flatter him on his perfectly placed warts.”

— Susan Dennard

69. “A person can grieve for herself yet still revel in someone else’s good fortune.”

— Susan Dennard

70. “Of course, the three men in the tavern who’d decided to attack Iseult had never made it back home at all. At least not with intact femurs.”

— Susan Dennard

71. “What is life except perception?”

— Susan Dennard

72. “Always. There was always blood where Aeduan went.”

— Susan Dennard

73. “Nothing negated beauty faster than boredom.”

— Susan Dennard

74. “The Airwitch had gone from reading nothing in his life to never stopping, buying every novel or history book he could get his hands on.”

— Susan Dennard

75. “Iseult’s nostrils twitched. Her face hardened. The defiance, the determination – they were back, and against his will, Aeduan’s lips twitched upward.”

— Susan Dennard

76. “He was good. The best fighter she’d ever faced. But Safi and Iseult were better.”

— Susan Dennard

77. “She trusted him. She had claimed his Aether, and she would guide his blade.”

— Susan Dennard

78. “But there was no reason. There never had been. He was just a child, trapped in the wreckage of war. He had not done this, he had not caused this. Yet he had lost his life to it all the same.”

— Susan Dennard

79. “Allow me to serve you, Safiya. We have spent too many years apart.” “And I have spent too many hours between meals.” A glare. “Give it to me now, Polly, or I shall castrate you with a fork.”

— Susan Dennard

80. “The music slowed. She pulled away first, slinking back the required four steps. Merik didn’t look away from her face, and he only distantly noticed that, as she pulled away, his Windwitchery seemed to settle. Her skirts stopped swishing, her hair fluttered back to her shoulders.”

— Susan Dennard

81. “Safi snatched the other side of his shirt. “These go inside these.”

— Susan Dennard

82. “Merik had seen potential trade for Nubrevna where there was none. He’d seen a navy that had “needed his leadership” when it hadn’t. He’d seen a selfish domna in Safiya fon Hasstrel, a frustrating Threadwitch in Iseult det Midenzi, and then an inconsequential ship’s boy in Cam – yet none of those presumptions had proved true.”

— Susan Dennard

83. “She stole his breath now, and he had no breath to spare.”

— Susan Dennard

84. “Who betrays whom first.”

— Susan Dennard

85. “No one asks for what life gives them.”

— Susan Dennard

86. “Simply because I have lost faith in the cause doesn’t mean the training has lost all of its usefulness.”

— Susan Dennard

87. “Please just get us through this alive.”

— Susan Dennard

88. “When Aeduan had said he would kill her in Lejna, she hadn’t believed him. When he’d said he would kill her last night, she had.”

— Susan Dennard

89. “Which left Aeduan, as always, on the edge of a scene, watching while the world unfolded without him beneath a darkening sky.”

— Susan Dennard

90. “It is always easier to blame gods or legends than it is to face our own mistakes.”

— Susan Dennard

91. “Iseult knew what she had to do. She knew what Safi would do in this position. What Habim or Mathew or her mother or anyone with a backbone would do. So why was she finding it so hard to summon any words?”

— Susan Dennard

92. “He was born a monster, he will die a monster, and monsters do not get to have friends.”

— Susan Dennard

93. “But he could smirk at her – and wave too. A flicker of his right fingers and then a tapping of his right palm.”

— Susan Dennard

94. “Darkness is not always a foe.”

— Susan Dennard

95. “Share the glory, share the blame.”

— Susan Dennard

96. “But one need not be evil to become it.”

— Susan Dennard

97. “Someone’s magic was cleaving.”

— Susan Dennard

98. “Evil is not the enemy, for without it, there can be no good. Chaos, however, is unstoppable.”

— Susan Dennard

99. “One man’s loneliness is another man’s freedom.”

— Susan Dennard

100. “At the ship’s stern, Vivia grabbed the balustrade. Already the waves licked towards her, hungry and ready. Command us, they said. We are yours. And Vivia smiled. She was a sea fox, she was a Tidewitch, and the Doge had chosen the wrong queen to anchor down.”

— Susan Dennard