Fiction Recs: Thoughtful and Sweet Quotes from Fantasy and Science Fiction

Sometimes a sentence or segment of writing just grabs at me and won't let go. Here are a few of those moments:

"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."

— Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee

"The vision of the gods without the power of the gods," said Tagiri. "What a terrible gift."

**

"She prayed for us to send a plague to wipe out all the Indies before the Europeans ever came. Are you really going to take that seriously?"

"If we're going to be gods," said Tagiri, "then I think we have a duty to come up with better solutions than the people who pray to us."

**

"Is he really a believer?" asked Hunahpu.

"Father thinks so. He says that the older you get, the more you believe in God, whatever face he wears."

— Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card

"When will I see her again?"

"Does it mean that much to you?" She smiled wanly. "Boq, does she really mean that much to you?"

"She is my world," he answered.

"Your world is too small if she is it."

"You can't criticize the size of a world. I can't help it and I can't stop it and I can't deny it."

**

Was it an accident I saw that, Fiyero wondered, looking at the manager with new eyes. Or is it just that the world unwraps itself to you, again and again, as soon as you are ready to see it anew?

**

"You'll be all right," Elphaba said, "now you're a seasoned traveler. This is just the return leg of a voyage you already know."

— Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Destiny wasn't real. Destiny was for people like Laurel, who could pin everything they had to an idea that the world was supposed to work in a certain way, and refuse to let it change. If these people said her destiny was to see the Queen, she would prove them wrong. She wasn't their chosen one. She was just Regan, and as Regan, she ran.

— Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

"Oh, little fry. ... If every day you're looking for the new thing that'll change your life -- what's left in the moments in between?"

— Sun Daughters, Sea Daughters by Aimee Ogden

What would that be like, not wanting to miss anything? How wearisome to be forever grabbing at bits of life.

— Chime by Franny Billingsley