Deborah Harkness Quotes & Sayings

Yes, I see that you are behaving like a prince but that doesn't mean you won't behave like a devil at the first opportunity. — Deborah Harkness

A note in Sarah's dark, decisive handwriting was taped to the staircase's newel post. "Out. Thought the house needed some time alone with you first. Move slowly. Matthew can stay in Em's old room. Your room is ready." There was a postscript, in Em's rounder scrawl. "Both of you use your parents' room. — Deborah Harkness

If we are at war, we're not fighting for a bewitched alchemical manuscript, or for my safety, or for our right to marry and have children. This is about the future of all of us." I saw that future for just a moment, its bright potential spooling away in a thousand different directions. "If our children don't take the next evolutionary steps, it will be someone else's children. And whiskey isn't going to make it possible for me to close my eyes and forget that. No one else will go through this kind of hell because they love someone they're not supposed to love. I won't allow it. — Deborah Harkness

Change is the only reliable thing in the world. — Deborah Harkness

Our arrival there and not at a busier, more crowded airport on the other side of town was yet another example of the magical efficiency and convenience of vampire travel. — Deborah Harkness

Desire urges me on as fear bridles me" Bruno. — Deborah Harkness

Decide what to do to survive, and do it. — Deborah Harkness

The first requirement of war: allies must not kill each other. — Deborah Harkness

For us to be together, we needed to decide which secrets to share and then let the others go. — Deborah Harkness

I've seen courage like yours before - from women, mostly." Matthew continued as if I hadn't spoken. "Men don't have it. Our resolve is born out of fear. It's merely bravado. — Deborah Harkness

I couldn't resist hiding some historical details and a few clues relevant to the plot and characters of 'A Discovery of Witches' throughout the pages of the novel. — Deborah Harkness

The wolf who wins is the wolf you feed. The evil wolf feeds on anger, guilt, sorrow, lies, and regret. The good wolf needs a diet of love and honesty, spiced up with big spoonfuls of compassion and faith. So if you want the good wolf to win, you're going to have to starve the other one. — Deborah Harkness

are you always like this, all dressed up in adrenaline, and no place to go? — Deborah Harkness

Giving a woman your whole life is meaningless without giving her your whole heart as well. — Deborah Harkness

Se Souvenir du passe, et qu'il ya un avenir: Remember the past, and that there is a future. — Deborah Harkness

My wife had learned to give in to what someone older, stronger, and meaner wanted. — Deborah Harkness

This is why you have to stop keeping secrets, Matt. They're going to destroy you from the inside. — Deborah Harkness

Men don't have it. Our resolve is born out of fear. It's merely bravado." His glance — Deborah Harkness

Magic provides a way of still having room for possibilities, an unlimited sense of what the world offers. Magic is always there when science is found wanting. — Deborah Harkness

Everyone who has ever been in pain knows that morphine and magic are the same. — Deborah Harkness

In every moment, for the rest of my life, I will be choosing you. — Deborah Harkness

rashers of bacon. — Deborah Harkness

Take care, Gallowglass," Matthew murmured. It was no casual farewell, but an order. His nephew nodded. "As if your wife were my own. — Deborah Harkness

It pained Emily to her librarian's soul to see books mistreated like this. — Deborah Harkness

My niece was very much caught up in the vampire craze for young adults, and she thought having a vampire boyfriend would be a cool thing. What do you do on a first date? The more I thought about it, the more fun I had imagining what you'd serve a vampire for dinner. — Deborah Harkness

And happiness is always louder than sadness. — Deborah Harkness

Turn to me with all your heart. Do not refuse me because I am dark and shadowed. The fire of the sun has altered me. The seas have encompassed me. The earth has been corrupted because of my work. Night fell over the earth when I sank into the miry deep, and my substance was hidden." The Moon Queen held a star in one outstretched palm. "From the depths of the water I cried out to you, and from the depths of the earth I will call to those who pass by me," I continued. "Watch for me. See me. And if you find another who is like me, I will give him the morning star. — Deborah Harkness

monsters always look just like ordinary men. — Deborah Harkness

Be yourself
Matthew Clairmont. Complete with your sharp vampire teeth and your scary mother, your test tubes full of blood and your DNA, your infuriating bossiness and your maddening sense of smell. — Deborah Harkness

Neither his family nor his next taste of blood mattered as much as knowing that she was safe and within arm's reach. If that was what it meant to be bewitched, he was a lost man. — Deborah Harkness

Elias Ashmole, a seventeenth-century book collector and alchemist whose books and papers had come to the Bodleian from the Ashmolean Museum in the nineteenth century, along with the number 782. — Deborah Harkness

I'm a storyteller, and I have really good material to work with: I've been studying magic and the occult since about 1983. — Deborah Harkness

I'm a professional non-fiction reader, that's what I do. But in my 20s we had our own vampire and witch moment, courtesy of Anne Rice, whose books I read and loved. — Deborah Harkness

I keep telling you we have no reason to rush. Modern creatures are always in such a hurry," Matthew murmured, drawing the fallen sheet down to my waist. "Call me old-fashioned if you'd like, but I want to enjoy every moment of our courtship. — Deborah Harkness

I sighed. "What can I do to convince you that I'm all right?" "Pick up the phone more often, for starters," she said grimly. — Deborah Harkness

Cheap wine is defined by its price, and it depends on personal spending limits. So for me, any wine under $10 is cheap. — Deborah Harkness

Magic is desire made real. — Deborah Harkness

The door swooshed open. A tiny woman in a purple miniskirt, red boots, and a black T-shirt that read STAND BACK - I'M GOING TO TRY SCIENCE walked through. Miriam Shephard had arrived. — Deborah Harkness

I realised that today we are very much interested in reading about subjects that would have also interested people in the 1500s: ghosts, demons and things that go bump in the night. — Deborah Harkness

Fear.' My mother had warned me of its power, but I had misunderstood, as children often do. I'd thought it was the fear of others that I needed to guard against, but it was my own terror. Because of that misunderstanding, I'd let the fear take root inside me until it clouded my thoughts and affected how I saw the world. Fear — Deborah Harkness

Witches are the kind of more traditional, home and family, craft people - so they're the ones who are making things; crocheting shawls and things like that. But then they also have that slightly confident, dangerous, edge. I always see them as having very extreme hair, either amazingly beautiful straight hair or kind of wild. — Deborah Harkness

You're taking this very well, Gallowglass," Diana said gratefully. "Matthew would be trying to talk me out of it." "That's what you get for falling in love with the wrong man," he said under his breath, slipping the phone back into his pocket. — Deborah Harkness

You know that I'm not going to let the Holy Roman Emperor - or anybody else, for that matter - seduce me. — Deborah Harkness

Children needed love, a reliable source of comfort, and an adult willing to take responsibility for them. — Deborah Harkness

English vampires may not be as well behaved around witches as the American ones are. — Deborah Harkness

Vote?" Matthew said, incredulous. "Since when did we vote in this family?" "Since Marcus took over the Knights of Lazarus," Gallowglass replied, drawing a silver lighter from his pocket. "We've been choking on democracy since the day you left. — Deborah Harkness

If you're angry with me, say it. If I've done something you don't like, tell me. If you want to end this marriage, have the courage to end it cleanly so that I might - might - be able to recover from it. Because if you keep looking at me as though you wish we weren't married, you're going to destroy me. — Deborah Harkness

Elizabeth Kostova's 2005 blockbuster, The Historian, — Deborah Harkness

You do angry. I just saw it. And you left at least one hole in my carpet to prove it. — Deborah Harkness

How we spoke about magic and with whom we discussed it. Humans outnumbered us and found our power frightening, my mother explained, and fear was the strongest force on earth. — Deborah Harkness

I'd studied 16th century science and magic. I thought it was strange that people were interested in the same kinds of things my research was about. The more I thought about it, the more intriguing it became and pretty soon I was writing a novel about a reluctant witch and a 1500-year-old vampire. — Deborah Harkness

She's taken over one of the castle's towers and painted the walls with images of the philosopher's stone. It's like working inside a Ripley scroll! I've — Deborah Harkness

I teach 18- to 21-year-olds - the 'Harry Potter' generation. They grew up as voracious readers, reading books in this exploding genre. But at some point, I would love for them to give Umberto Eco or A.S. Byatt a try. I hope 'A Discovery of Witches' will serve as a kind of stepping-stone. — Deborah Harkness

Now I want nothing more than to grow old with you," Matthew said. — Deborah Harkness

It's one thing to wander in the darkness because you know no different, but it's quite another to enjoy the light only to have it taken from you, — Deborah Harkness

A willingness to change was the secret of survival. — Deborah Harkness

Films are wonderful but they do fix an identity. I can't read 'Pride and Prejudice' anymore, for instance, without imaging Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. — Deborah Harkness

Give me knowledge of my end and the measure of my days, so I may know my fraility. My lifetime is no longer than the width of my hand. It is only a moment, compared to yours. — Deborah Harkness

Now most in the room accept we're more similar than different and treat one another with courtesy. — Deborah Harkness

The plain truth is that the period I study is the 16th century, and they were absolutely obsessed with witches and spiritual beings. — Deborah Harkness

Gallowglass returned to Sporrengasse with two vampires and a pretzel. — Deborah Harkness

The king just sits there, moving one square at a time. The queen can move so freely. I suppose I'd rather lose the game than forfeit her freedom. — Deborah Harkness

Why do today's women think it's important to open a door themselves?" he said sharply. "Do you believe it's a testament to your physical power? — Deborah Harkness

Whoever can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead. — Deborah Harkness

As far as I can tell, there are only two emotions that keep the world spinning, year after year." He hesitated, then continued. "One is fear. The other is desire. That's what I wrote about." Love — Deborah Harkness

And if we all did what we should, we would wake to find ourselves in paradise — Deborah Harkness

Do you wonder what it would be like for me to taste you? — Deborah Harkness

Mark me well, Diana: Lives will be lost because of your love for my son ... What does it matter who deals the deathblow? If you do not do it, then Matthew will. — Deborah Harkness

There were no vampires of note in Western literature until about the 18th century. But they tell us where we park our anxieties, whether its over-powerful women, death or damnation. We make our own monsters. — Deborah Harkness

It was a brutal picture, a tug-of-war between two equal but opposing impulses. It had the ring of truth, however, — Deborah Harkness

Sir. My lord. Master Roydon." The young man blurted out most available titles except for "Your Majesty" and "Prince of Darkness." These were implied nonetheless. — Deborah Harkness

If the thirsty stag runs to the brook, it's only because he isn't aware of the cruel bow ... If the unicorn runs to its chaste nest, it's only because he doesn't see the noose prepared for him. — Deborah Harkness

With knot of one, the spell's begun.
With knot of two, the spell be true.
With knot of three, the spell is free.
With knot of four, the power is stored.
With knot of five, the spell with thrive.
With knot of six, this spell I fix. — Deborah Harkness

For your wedding gift, I wish I had a spell that could make you see yourself as others do.' 'Based — Deborah Harkness

Her bark is worse than her bite. — Deborah Harkness

You're impossible. Stop worrying about what other women do. Be your own extraordinary self. — Deborah Harkness

I really love helping students and helping them empathize with people who lived a really long time ago. That's one of the highlights of working in fiction. — Deborah Harkness

It begins with absence and desire.
It begins with blood and fear.
It begins with a discovery of witches. — Deborah Harkness

Matthew had been accumulating secrets ... My life might be too brief to hear them all, never mind understand them. — Deborah Harkness

Wordlessly I looked back at him, astonished that a kiss on the palm could be so intimate. — Deborah Harkness

We kissed each other, long and deep, while my legs opened like the covers of a book. — Deborah Harkness

Normal' is a bedtime story-a fable-that humans tell themselves to feel better when faced with overwhelming evidence that most of what's happening around them is not 'normal' at all. — Deborah Harkness

I see you, even when you hide from the rest of the world. I hear you, even when you're silent. — Deborah Harkness

Because you will love him as you love no one else, I tied your magic to your feelings for him. Even so, only you will have the ability to draw it into the open. — Deborah Harkness

But it's too soon for me to imagine losing you. — Deborah Harkness

I am capable of opening my own door," I said, getting out of the car. "Why do today's women think it's important to open a door themselves?" he said sharply. — Deborah Harkness

As fast as I can tell there are only two emotions that keep the world spinning year after year ... One is fear. The other is desire. — Deborah Harkness

We don't lock up books in this house," Philippe said, "only food, ale, and wine. Reading Herodotus or Aquinas seldom leads to bad behavior. — Deborah Harkness

I cannot shield you from the challenges you will face. You will know great loss and danger, but also great joy. You may doubt your instincts in the years to come, but your feet have been walking this path since the moment you were born. — Deborah Harkness

It is I who mediates the elements, bringing each into agreement ... I make what is moist dry again, and what is dry I make moist. I make what is hard soft again, and harden that which is soft. As I am the end, so my lover is the beginning. I encompass the whole work of creation, and all knowledge is hidden in me ... Who will dare to separate me from my love? No one, for our love is as strong as death. — Deborah Harkness

For me, a $20 wine that drinks like a $40 wine in terms of complexity and interest is a value, while a $5 wine that is not very good is not a value at all in my opinion. — Deborah Harkness

Some promises matter more than others. — Deborah Harkness

Rebecca asked me what made the most lasting impression on children. I told her it was the stories their parents read to them at night, and all the messages about hope and strength and love that were embedded in them. — Deborah Harkness

They'll figure it out if we're not careful. Humans like power - secrets, too. — Deborah Harkness

Nightmares are like Master Harriot's star glass. They are a trick of the light, one that makes something distant seem closer and larger than it really is." "Oh." Jack considered Matthew's response. "So even if I see a monster in my dreams, it cannot reach me?" Matthew nodded. "But I will tell you a secret. A dream is a nightmare in reverse. If you dream of someone you love, that person will seem closer, even if far away. — Deborah Harkness

Here's Fernando, Sarah said in a tone suggesting that deliverance had come at last. — Deborah Harkness

I don't expect you to have no regrets about who you've lost along the way. How could you not have been loved before, when I love you so much? — Deborah Harkness

Baldwin had never grasped the concept of atonement. His view of Matthew's faith was purely transactional - you went to church, confessed, and walked out a clean man. But salvation was more complicated. Philippe had come to understand that in the end, although he had long found Matthew's constant search for forgiveness irritating and irrational. — Deborah Harkness

Do not refuse me because I am dark and shadowed,' I whispered, remembering — Deborah Harkness

To pleasant songs my work was once given, and bright were all my labors then; / But now in tears to sad refrains I must return. — Deborah Harkness