Susanna Clarke Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“She wore a gown the color of storms, shadows, and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Well, I suppose one ought not to employ a magician and then complain that he does not behave like other people.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry. Imagine then the interest that surrounded Miss Wintertowne! No young lady ever had such advantages before: for she died upon the Tuesday, was raised to life in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and was married upon the Thursday; which some people thought too much excitement for one week.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“I was told once by some country people that a magician should never tell his dreams because the telling will make them come true. But I say that is great nonsense.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never would.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Time and I have quarrelled. All hours are midnight now. I had a clock and a watch, but I destroyed them both. I could not bear the way they mocked me.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Such nonsense!" declared Dr Greysteel. "Whoever heard of cats doing anything useful!" "Except for staring at one in a supercilious manner," said Strange. "That has a sort of moral usefulness, I suppose, in making one feel uncomfortable and encouraging sober reflection upon one's imperfections.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Drawing teaches habits of close observation that will always be useful.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Bryon tilted his head to a very odd angle, half-closed his eyes and composed his features to suggest that he was about to expire from chronic indigestion.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“It is these black clothes," said Strange. "I am like a leftover piece of funeral, condemned to walk about the Town, frightening people into thinking of their own mortality.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“you must learn to live as I do - in the face of constant criticism, opposition and censure. That, sir, is the English way.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Oh! And they read English novels! David! Did you ever look into an English novel? Well, do not trouble yourself. It is nothing but a lot of nonsense about girls with fanciful names getting married.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“But when the fairy sang the whole world listened to him. Stephen felt clouds pause in their passing; he felt sleeping hills shift and murmur; he felt cold mists dance. He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. In the fairy’s song the earth recognized the names by which it called itself.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Well, Henry, you can cease frowning at me. If I am a magician, I am a very indifferent one. Other adepts summon up fairy-spirits and long-dead kings. I appear to have conjured the spirit of a banker.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Unfortunately, Childermass's French was so strongly accented by his native Yorkshire that Minervois did not understand and asked Strange if Childermass was Dutch.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“You mean to say he became mad deliberately?' ...Nothing is more likely,' said the duke.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“After two hours it stopped raining and in the same moment the spell broke, which Peroquet and the Admiral and Captain Jumeau knew by a curious twist of their senses, as if they had tasted a string quartet, or been, for a moment, deafened by the sight of colour blue.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“It was an old fashioned house --the sort of house in fact, as Strange expressed it, which a lady in a novel might like to be persecuted in.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Perhaps I am too tame, too domestic a magician. But how does one work up a little madness? I meet with mad people every day in the street, but I never thought before to wonder how they got mad. Perhaps I should go wandering on lonely moors and barren shores. That is always a popular place for lunatics - in novels and plays at any rate. Perhaps wild England will make me mad.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Magic, madam, is like wine and, if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“But, though French, she was also very brave...”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“When he awoke it was dawn. Or something like dawn. The light was watery, dim and incomparably sad. Vast, grey, gloomy hills rose up all around them and in between the hills there was a wide expanse of black bog. Stephen had never seen a landscape so calculated to reduce the onlooker to utter despair in an instant. "This is one of your kingdoms, I suppose, sir?" he said. "My kingdoms?" exclaimed the gentleman in surprize. "Oh, no! This is Scotland!”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“There was very little about her face and figure that was in any way remarkable, but it was the sort of face which, when animated by conversation or laughter, is completely transformed. She had a lovely disposition, a quick mind and a fondness for the comical. She was always very ready to smile and, since a smile is the most becoming ornament that any lady can wear, she had been known upon occasion to outshine women who were acknowledged beauties in three countries.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Ha!' said the tall man drily. 'He was in high luck. Rich old uncles who die are in shockingly short supply.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“I mean that two of any thing is a most uncomfortable number. One may do as he pleases. Six may get along well enough. But two must always struggle for mastery. Two must always watch each other. The eyes of all the world will be on two, uncertain which of them to follow.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“There must come a time when the bullets will run out”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“All books are doors; and some of them are wardrobes.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“Strange bent over these things, with a concentration to rival Minervois's own, questioning, criticizing and proposing. Strange and the two engravers spoke French to each other. To Strange's surprize Childermass understood perfectly and even addressed one or twoquestions to Minervois in his own language. Unfortunately, Childermass's French was so strongly accented by his native Yorkshire that Minervois did not understand and asked Strange if Childermass was Dutch.”
-- Susanna Clarke -
“How is a magician to exist without books? Let someone explain that to me. It is like asking a politician to achieve high office without the benefit of bribes or patronage.”
-- Susanna Clarke
