Top 60 Trudi Canavan Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Better to know the quick pain of truth than the ongoing pain of a long-held false hope.”

— Trudi Canavan

2. “If your appearance is all people see, they have no respect for your mind.”

— Trudi Canavan

3. “Wisdom and knowledge is everywhere, but so is stupity.”

— Trudi Canavan

4. “There’s always a bit of truth in each rumour, the trouble is finding out which bit. – Tayend.”

— Trudi Canavan

5. “It is said, in Imardin, that the wind has a soul, and that it wails through the narrow streets because it is grieved by what it finds there.”

— Trudi Canavan

6. “The Magicians Apprentice was about someone from the low end of society manifesting magical power and how that completely messes up the balance of the whole system.”

— Trudi Canavan

7. “I wound up studying art and design, got a job at Lonely Planet Publications as a designer, cartographer and illustrator.”

— Trudi Canavan

8. “The right rumour in the right ears can kill the emperor, as they say.”

— Trudi Canavan

9. “Though I can’t help feeling a sudden death cheats you of something. Death is an experience of life. You only get one death. I would like to be aware it was happening, even if that did mean enduring pain and fear.”

— Trudi Canavan

10. “Unquestioning obedience is for slaves, the uneducated and the pathetic.”

— Trudi Canavan

11. “Happy endings are a luxury of fiction.”

— Trudi Canavan

12. “I always love writing the third book in a series because you get to tie up all the threads that you put out in the first two books. You finally let people know what really happens and reveal all the secrets and bring certain characters together.”

— Trudi Canavan

13. “En ocasiones, revelar la medida justa de la verdad era mejor que mentir descaradamente.”

— Trudi Canavan

14. “We have more in common than I thought, he mused wryly. He liked the idea that, if either of them ever fell from grace, the other might be there to offer support. It’s always easier to become friends with someone you have something in common with. I just hope it doesn’t take some socially disastrous fall before she’ll consider the possibility I might be a friend.”

— Trudi Canavan

15. “She felt something inside her turn to stone and fall down into her gut, where it lay cold and hard and uncomfortable. Which was impossible, of course. Human organs did not turn to stone and certainly could not shift into the stomach.”

— Trudi Canavan

16. “Inspiration comes from so many sources. Music, other fiction, the non-fiction I read, TV shows, films, news reports, people I know, stories I hear, misheard words or lyrics, dreams.”

— Trudi Canavan

17. “I’ve replaced Takan, she thought suddenly. The former slave had followed Akkarin out of Sachaka and become his faithful servant. Now she was following Akkarin into Sachaka. What was it about him that inspired such devotion?”

— Trudi Canavan

18. “It always seems easier to do nothing, when the harm is don elsewhere,” Dakon said. “They know their young ones will either learn a lesson and limp home – or die and stop being a problem – or prove successful. The worst that could happen is a bit of a diplomatic hiccup in history.”

— Trudi Canavan

19. “I still recommend reading travel guides as an insight to a travellers perspective on fantasy worlds. Nearly all characters end up travelling at some point, and they have many of the same needs and concerns covered in travel guides.”

— Trudi Canavan

20. “How am I going to make friends with these people if all I can think of is how easy it would be to rob them?”

— Trudi Canavan

21. “Hanara did not yet feel he’d reached long-life. It was a state, slaves said, where you felt satisfied you have lived long enough. Where you didn’t feel cheated if you died. You might not have had an easy life, or a happy one, but you’d had your measure. Or you had made a difference to the world, even a small one, because you had existed.”

— Trudi Canavan

22. “Risk. Only when you know the other could easily leave you, do you appreciate when he stays. Only when it’s not easier on them to like you than not, do you appreciate it when they do.” – Achati.”

— Trudi Canavan

23. “It had surprised and impressed Tessia to learn that Everran and Avaria owned two wagons, one for their own everyday use and one kept for visits to the Royal Palace. Since the journey to the palace consisted of half the length of two streets, it seemed frivolous to own a vehicle especially for it.”

— Trudi Canavan

24. “I have always been fascinated by the supernatural elements in stories, whether fairy tales, myths, film or literature.”

— Trudi Canavan

25. “A friend. Cery’s shoulders drooped. Closing his eyes, he let out a long sigh.”

— Trudi Canavan

26. “It was impossible to imagine the aloof, dignified, powerful High Lord living as, of all things, a slave.”

— Trudi Canavan

27. “People and land, they’re the same, his father used to say. Neglect one and the other suffers eventually.”

— Trudi Canavan

28. “There are three things you will learn from tonight: even the most powerful Thief has limitations, it pays to have friends in high places, and there are some things best left to magicians.” – Cery.”

— Trudi Canavan

29. “The healers’ university looked exactly as Tessia had imagined. Her father had described it as an ‘old but strange building that has adopted and absorbed surrounding houses as opportunity and funds allowed’. It sounded confusing and intriguing, and it was.”

— Trudi Canavan

30. “Our army is retreating. The Sachakans are following. They will be here soon. We must be ready. The servants are bringing horses.” He paused and frowned at one of the apprentices. “Stop wating time asking stupid questions and see if your horse is here!” he snapped. He turned and pointed. “You! Arelenin. I can see someone bringing your horse. Yes, I’d hardly miss that ugly beast if it were on the other side of the country. Go and get it.”

— Trudi Canavan

31. “When Tessia and Jayan were served a large, fat rassook each, Jayan had smugly commented that Tessia certainly had a way with villagers and he would not be surprised if she could charm pickpockets into putting money into her wallet.”

— Trudi Canavan

32. “Injustice alway captures the attention of the young,” she said. “But as we get older we discover how difficult it is to change the world, and we learn to turn our eyes away from what we can’t fix until we no longer see injustice at all.”

— Trudi Canavan

33. “Jayan found teaching both frustrating and rewarding. It depended on the apprentice. Some were attentive and talented. Some were not.”

— Trudi Canavan

34. “Tyvara shook her head. “I knew this would happen. I didn’t want to become attached to you because I knew, if I did, something would take you away.” Suddenly he couldn’t stop smiling. She looked up and frowned. “What’s so funny?” “I love you, too,” he said.”

— Trudi Canavan

35. “But as I witnessed what Dakova was capable of, I cared less about what the Guild did and didn’t allow. He did not need black magic to perform evil. I saw him do things with his bare hands that I will never forget.”

— Trudi Canavan

36. “Mortals did not need gods to order them to kill eachother. They were quite capable of finding reasons to do so themselves.”

— Trudi Canavan

37. “I suppose if Akkarin came to rescue you all the time, people would say you weren’t a good choice. The novices are all jealous of you, not realising that they would be in the same situation if they were the High Lord’s favourite, even if they are from the Houses. Any novice he chose would be a target. Always expected to prove themselves.”

— Trudi Canavan

38. “Nodding, Cery strode to the door and stepped through. Though the burly guards eyes him suspiciously, Cery smiled back. Never make enemies of someone’s lackeys, his father had taught him. Better still, make them like you a lot.”

— Trudi Canavan

39. “It was a day-by-day record of a Guild much younger and smaller than the current one. After several pages, she had grown fond of the record-keeper, who clearly admired the people he was writing about.”

— Trudi Canavan

40. “Your supposed to drink wine, my friend, not breathe it.”

— Trudi Canavan

41. “All we can hope for is that, whatever the outcome, the people we care about survive and escape.” – Dannyl.”

— Trudi Canavan

42. “There was no fast and painless way to perform an amputation, Tessia knew. Not if you did it properly.”

— Trudi Canavan

43. “But right now it’s a friend’s love.”

— Trudi Canavan

44. “Most people would not open a door unless they knew what lay beyond, and even if they opened the door by mistake, they would find an uninteresting room beyond.”

— Trudi Canavan

45. “He had given her too much. He had given her everything.”

— Trudi Canavan

46. “Cery: So, Hem, tell me why I shouldn’t see how many holes I need to make before you start leaking money?”

— Trudi Canavan

47. “The last young lady I met stabbed me. You know I’m cursed when it comes to women.”

— Trudi Canavan

48. “Being friends with the enemy certainly complicates matters.” – Dannyl.”

— Trudi Canavan

49. “What was I thinking? Of all the assistants I could have wound up with, why did I have to choose the one with the scary mother and troublemaking in his bloodlines? I am doomed.”

— Trudi Canavan

50. “I’d rather be honest with myself when it comes to business. I wanted to be better off than most dwells. Don’t want to die a beggar. I’m not pretending I got higher purposes than that.” – Cery.”

— Trudi Canavan