Ellen Kushner Quotes

“Let the fairy tale begin on a winter's morning, then, with one drop of blood newly-fallen on the ivory snow: a drop as bright as a clear-cut ruby, red as a single spot of claret on the lace cuff.”

— Ellen Kushner

“Not being the sort to throw a book, she pounded her fist on her cushion.”

— Ellen Kushner

There's the road to heaven, and there's the road to hell, and there? That's the road to Faerie.

— Ellen Kushner

“He said, 'They're only whores,' as though their very availability rendered them worthless.”

— Ellen Kushner

“Across the troubled maelstrom of time, people always need a beer.”

— Ellen Kushner

The time of testing, and of playing, was over. This was the final duel for one of them. Now they were fighting for their lives
for the one life that would emerge from this elegant battle ... For the moment the two of them were evenly matched, arm against arm. Michael prayed that it would never stop, that there would always be this moment of utter mastery, beautiful and rare, and no conclusion ever be reached.

— Ellen Kushner

Richard knew he was fighting for his life, and he was terribly happy.

— Ellen Kushner

“But I saw the pair of them, along with everyone else. Hard to miss. Him towering like a raggedy scarecrow in that flapping black scholar's gown, and the sword always quiet next to him, sweet as honey, and poison with it.”

— Ellen Kushner

Although he was at core a rotten being, no one could fault him for style.

— Ellen Kushner

“What was it about scholarship and learning, he wondered, that seemed to wither the hearts of University men, leaving them incapable of loving anything as imperfect and fallible as an actual human being?”

— Ellen Kushner

“I let the insults go by. A good swordsman doesn't pay attention to words in a fight.”

— Ellen Kushner

“Have you seen Marcus?" he asked his ugly friend.
"Yes, he was stoping some people in the Violet Room from climbing the curtains."
"What for?"
"They were not professionals."
"Oh.”

— Ellen Kushner

I wonder if you men have any idea of how insulting it is to women when you assume that all we can offer is our bodies?

— Ellen Kushner

“It does not become you, my lord, to lie. Not to me." Now two spots of color, like red bites, stained his lover's cheeks. "Because I am a lord? Or because you are so fond of truth?" "Both," said Basil calmly. "And more besides. You, with the blood of kings, and I with-what I have. Now, come here." He held out his hand as if coaxing an animal from the woods. "Come here and tell me about your latest conquest.”

— Ellen Kushner

“Maybe someone would write a play just for me, one where a real woman could fight with her sword, and had many fine adventures and changes of costume.”

— Ellen Kushner

Be careful to know yourself when the time comes," he warned the Little King. "The man who fails the test will run for the rest of his life, with the beast still in his heart.

— Ellen Kushner

“Thanks to you, the leaders of the University branch-Masters Greenleaf and Smith-are safely out of harm's way. As to the Northern branch-well, my agent currently describes it as an association of young men, young and unmarried, who gather in the woods from time to time to celebrate elaborate rituals that draw equally from local folklore and a youthful taste for mysticism and indiscriminate copulation. We're watching them closely.”

— Ellen Kushner

“I could make it not matter.”

— Ellen Kushner

“Honest change? Honest? Has someone altered the definition of the word while my back was turned, or have you recently developed a sense of humor?”

— Ellen Kushner

Utterly ingenious! Tiffany Trent has more fine invention at her fingertips than a roomful of magical Leonardos!

— Ellen Kushner

Current cant equates fantasy with escapism, and current fashion would have it that fantasy is both easy to read and to write. It isn't. When it is done honestly, by a skillful writer, fantasy takes us far enough beyond our daily perceptions to open us to the essential realities beneath it. This is the true goal of all art.

— Ellen Kushner

“A masterwork. A particularly American magic realism that touches the heart of race and childhood in our country; it's 100 Years of Solitude for an entire generation of American Baby Boomers, and deserves the widest possible audience.”

— Ellen Kushner

“Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin together again for the first time.”

— Ellen Kushner

“Dream big. Find what makes you happy, and pursue it as you would food and warmth. You deserve it. And if you don't, then do what it takes to become worthy of it.”

— Ellen Kushner

I'm the Duke of Riverside. I build things here and pretty much keep the peace, and discourage certain behaviors. If you think all that has been achieved through entirely civil and lawful means, you've had your head in a bucket.

— Ellen Kushner

“In a city where most of the wealth is controlled by a small few, certain things are overlooked, particularly when it comes to the assertion of privilege.”

— Ellen Kushner

“Is this politics? I suppose I am going to have to learn all about it, if I am to run Lord Ferris's household, and throw parties and all. Now ... explain to me again just who hates who, and why?”

— Ellen Kushner

“Holly Black is the Real Thing: a gifted writer with a solid grounding in what matters. Her stories are dark and splendid blooms rising from roots sunk deep in myth and tradition.”

— Ellen Kushner