M. K. Hobson

“Emily’s chestnut-colored hair was thick and shiny as silk floss—an extraordinary female endowment. But like most female endowments, it was generally more trouble than it was worth.”

““Ever mind the Rule of Three...Three times what thou givest returns to thee.””

“Zombies are soulless creatures, and being soulless has been empirically proven to result in an unpleasant disposition.”

““Still feeling guilty, are we? I’d have thought you’d be over that by now.”“They’re out of fashion in New York,” Stanton said, and though she guessed she was joking, he didn’t sound humorous.”

“The sight of Oakland sprawling on the horizon gave Emily’s spirits an additional boost. Oakland was by no means lovely, but it meant they were almost to San Francisco.”

“In New Bethel, we take the word serious. We whip whores, we hang thieves, and we burn sorcerers.”

“He’s lying. I have no doubt he’s excellent at it.”

“Before the sun went down again, she realized, she would be in New York. The thought sent a nervous thrill through her entire body. Her throat was tight, her heart suddenly racing.”

“Emily looked at him for a long time. There were so many things she wanted to know—but she wanted not to know them even more. She didn’t want any more answers. He had been the one thing she could trust, the one person she could rely on. She wanted to beg him to be that way again. But it wasn’t him who had changed. It was her. It was her own credulity she really wanted back. And credulity, like virtue, could be lost only once.”

““Dignity is like morality,” Mirabilis barked. “Too much is as bad as too little.””

“I’d ask you to forego the jingoistic claptrap, but it’s terrifyingly obvious you truly believe it.”

“Senator Stanton? The man who’s sold his own soul so many times that no one can figure out who actually owns it?”

“She wanted to crawl into his arms and be soothed, and soothe him in return, and forget all the grand ideas she’d ever had about true love, and the necessity for it. Because true love was a load of baloney. Finding a good friend...a good friend who trusted you...was more than enough.”

“Emily stared into the middle distance, trying to ignore the fact that the men were looking at her like a cupcake on a plate.”

““I’ll do everything I can to help, I promise.”“You always have,” Emily murmured. Except tell me the truth about anything.”

“You know, there’s one thing about you that always astonishes me. The longer you talk, the wronger you get.”

“Sadly, there is a fine line between patriotism and paranoia.”

“But it was impossible to remain so long in the company of a female, even a divine one, without suffering some form of disillusionment.”

“In his idle hours, Heusler sometimes amused himself by trying to conceive of a crime a mortal man could commit that was more monstrous than making a goddess fall in love with him. He had never succeeded.”

“Love. Such a lot of damn fuss.”

“Could one die from boredom, she wondered? From complete, oppressive, crushing, unmitigated boredom, the likes of which made all other boredom seem like ecstasy’s sweet thrilling embrace? And in such a case, if one happened to have a life insurance policy, would it pay?”

“It was her own evil assumptions that had done her in. She hadn’t even considered the third possible explanation for his strange behavior—that he was a perfectly nice man, without an ounce of guile, just trying to be helpful. People helped people in California. Why hadn’t she thought of that? She’d only been in New York a few weeks, and already she was turning hard and suspicious.”

“She was painfully aware that doing one’s best was never assurance that it wasn’t the wrong choice anyway.”

“It was disappointing, as if a wish she didn’t know she’d made hadn’t come true.”

“Emily already knew there was going to be hell to pay, and she supposed there was no use allowing it to accrue interest.”

““Was your mother furious?”“She’ll get over it,” Stanton said. “Perhaps not in this lifetime, but I happen to believe in reincarnation, so there’s still hope.””

““I’m sorry Mr. Stanton, really I am. I didn’t mean to miss it. Things...happened.”“Oh, well. Things happened. How nice to have that cleared up.””

“The obsessive rules of etiquette struck Emily as mean-spirited, like the old trick of tying someone’s shoelaces under the table. It was only fun if you liked watching people fall down.”

“The shortness of the woman’s replies indicated that Emily was asking questions Miss Jesczenka didn’t particularly want to answer, but those were usually the questions that most needed to be asked.”

““What kind of idiot do you think I am?””I have no idea what kind of idiot you are,” Miss Jesczenka said. “That’s why I’m asking.””

“Spread out before the pyramid, as far as the eye could see, stretched a frozen ocean of blackness—stinking oily blackness that bubbled and churned. Voider than void, colder than cold, deader than dead.It is the world we will make for you.”

“There is a difference between not understanding and being willfully obtuse.”

““It is a great weakness of credomancers, Miss Edwards. They often believe their own press.”“I’m also a woman. Failure, struggle, and doubt are my constant companions. They are not always pleasant, but they inoculate me against overconfidence. As such, I would not trade them for all the arrogant bravado in the world.””

“I don’t think that’s the answer he was looking for. It’s not the answer I was looking for. But maybe it’s the right one.”

““Don’t lie,” he said. “That’s my job.””

“Nothing is ever what you want it to be. The harder you grab for it, the more deeply it cuts. And it mocks you for being foolish enough to reach for it at all. You come to fear touching anything at all, because you know that if you do, it will become terrible.”

“Emily pounded on the door, assuming it would do no good, but finding the act of pounding very satisfying indeed.”

““I wasn’t sure if we were still engaged.””But it’s a start,” Emily said.”