N.k. Jemisin Book Quotes

You’ve read accounts of attempts by the Sixth University at Arcara to capture a stone eater for study, two Seasons back. The result was the Seventh University at Dibars, which got built only after they dug enough books out of the rubble of Sixth.

I definitely haven’t been in the best place while working on this book, but I can say this much: Where there is pain in this book, it is real pain; where there is anger, it is real anger; where there is love, it is real love. You’ve been taking this journey with me, and you’re always going to get the best of what I’ve got. That’s what my mother would want.

I don’t know how I feel about a canon anymore ... The sheer volume of books that exist out there means that a canon is no longer possible.

Syenite brings a truly awful novel someone found on the looted freighter, the sort of thing whose first page made her wince and burst into giggles. Then, of course, she kept reading. She loves books that are just for fun.

Tonkee. Tonkee doesn’t react well at first. She’s mostly just confused when gifts of dead animals and books start appearing in the apartment, brought by with a too-casual, “In case that big brain of hers needs something to chew on,” and a wink. You’re the one who has to explain to Tonkee that Hjarka’s decided, through whatever convoluted set of values the big woman holds dear, that an ex-commless geomest with the social skills of a rock represents the pinnacle of desirability.

The stone eater at the core of the obelisk floats before her. It’s her first time being close to one. All the books say that stone eaters are neither male nor female, but this one resembles a slender young man formed of white-veined black marble, clothed in smooth robes of iridescent opal. Its—his?—limbs, marbled and polished, splay as if frozen in mid-fall. His head is flung back, his hair loose and curling behind him in a splash of translucence. The cracks spread over his skin and the stiff illusion of his clothing, into him, through him. Are you alright? she wonders, and she has no idea why she wonders it, even as she herself cracks apart. His flesh is so terribly fissured; she wants to hold her breath, lest she damage him further. But that is irrational, because she isn’t here and this isn’t real. She is on a street about to die, but this stone eater has been dead for an age of the world. The stone eater closes his mouth, opens his eyes, and lowers his head to look at her. “I’m fine,” he says. “Thank you for asking.” And then the obelisk shatters.

I will laugh when you're dead," he said softly. The small hairs along my skin prickled, for his voice was a grown man's now, tenor malevolence. "I will claim your heart as a toy and kick it for a hundred years. And when I am finally free, I will hunt down all your descendants and make their children just like me.

I closed my eyes and traced my mother's face against my memory for the ten thousandth time.

She abandoned here to dally with her sweet-tongued savage. I allowed this - an indulgence I have often regretted. So I will assuage that regret by bringing you back into the fold, Granddaughter. Whether you live or die is irrelevant. You are Arameri, and like all of us, you will serve.

The Enefadeh are the reason we wear blood sigils, Lady Yeine. No one may pass the night in Sky without one. It isn't safe.

As Lord Dekarta said, Lady Yeine - all descendants of Shahar Arameri must serve. One way or another.

So be good," the priests would add, "or the Nightlord will get you.

On the one occassion that I risked a glance back, I saw the gentle glow of the hallway fade into a throat of black so deep looking that way hurt the eye. I did not look back again.

I especially like your face. You don't showc much emotion - is that a Darre thing or your mother's traning?- but when you di, all the world can read it.

It isn't your fault." Sieh sounded unhappy. "We just need to explain, and she'll understand.

...it’s like tasting a page of a book and noticing the minute differences between the ink and the bare page and using that to read.

You've read accounts by the Sixth University at Arcara to capture a stone eater for study, two Seasons back. The result was the Seventh University at Dibars, which got built only after they dug enough books out of the rubble of Sixth.