Tanith Lee Quotes

British writer (1947-2015)

Tanith Lee (19 September 1947 – 24 May 2015) was a British writer of science fiction, horror and fantasy. She also wrote under the pseudonym Esther Garber.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: Esther Garber

Alternative Names: Judas Garbah

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It was idiotic to be superstitious.

Fashions change. Even in mythology.

The absolute, as I had finally been shown, does not need the accompaniment of pipes and drums.

The sky powdered her cheeks with rouge, and the forest was mantled in crimson. Then the face of the sky altered, became that of a beautiful black damsel having no wish for rouge, but only for a net of stars and a piece of silver moon to hang on her forehead. And the forest mantled in sable, whispered with waters and the lyres of the grasshopper, and with the turning pages of leaves, and the unheard footsteps of unseen things.

The year was woven on the loom, finished and folded away upon the pile of other years in the tall chests of Time.

Strange, that when we feel we understand all things, we understand nothing. Strange, that when we feel we understand nothing, we have begun, at last, to understand.

I would be a drudge now, among the tents, and I would kneel before the warriors, and run from them when they shouted at me. I would be a woman, as women were reckoned in this place, a half-souled, witless animal, created to bear and pleasure men: an afterthought of the god.

I do not know why it distressed me so much to see an animal die when human death did not move me. Perhaps because they were more beautiful, and there is no corruption in them, while in the best of men there can always be found some guilt or wickedness which seems to have earned him death.

I have a plan," said Xaros, "improbable only in its genius.

Let us prove to the world that superstition is idiocy and all the demons are dust.

Who knew? If the illusion is quite perfect, who is to say it is not real?

Is it the regency you want, or me?"
"The regency. You, sweetheart, are the worthless dross that comes with it.

Somewhere in me was a rod of steel to which I clung. I’d had a vision, as good as any vision given to any poet, sage, or prophet in the past. I wasn’t elated, I wasn’t confident even, but somehow, I knew, and with the end of doubt had come the death of despair.

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

He walked up to the high roof where the beacon was lit at night to jog the gods’ amnesia.