Ekaterina Sedia Quotes & Sayings

If she were to get her key back, she thought, no one but her would ever touch it. She would wind herself well in advance so that she would never need to rely on another to keep herself alive. — Ekaterina Sedia

The ghost's eyes clouded for a moment, by memory or regret. "Past speaks to the future," she said. "The present is already crumbling. — Ekaterina Sedia

The bird Gamayun was related to Alkonost and Sirin in some vague fashion
even the most casual observer would've noticed that all three of them were not entirely birds; they had the faces and breasts of women, severe but beautiful. And when their lips opened, they sand in women's voices, deep and rich and bittersweet. — Ekaterina Sedia

That was the trouble with the supernatural, Vimbai thought
you didn't know what laws ruled it, and what was a coincidence and what was a sign and what was weird and what wasn't. It was like a whodunit, only the clues refused to be arranged into any sort of hierarchy or a straight narrative, and most of the time it wasn't even clear if they indeed were clues; a jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces were blank. — Ekaterina Sedia

They, the women, were like the gargoyles, Mattie thought. Respected in words, but hidden from view of those who ran the city and managing to live in the darkness, in the secret interstices of life. — Ekaterina Sedia

He was still wide awake when the morning came - the light changed imperceptibly underground, with the glowtrees flaring up brightly, and the shimmer of golden dust that remained suspended in the musty air, as if millions of butterflies had shed the scales of their wings in midair. — Ekaterina Sedia

Helen devises plans to become a monster herself. — Ekaterina Sedia

Of course I am!" Mattie stomped her foot, and the entire house shook. "Everyone should be afraid of change - people die in such times. — Ekaterina Sedia

Your people are losing your jobs to your machines. You put mechanizing everything and making it efficient above your people's happiness, and you wonder why they aren't happy? — Ekaterina Sedia

But why?" Vimbai whispered, overwhelmed with the weight of accumulated disbelief. "What is happening to us?"
"Who knows?" Maya shrugged. "Who cares? Enjoy it while you can, why don't you? There will be tons of boring shit in your life, okay? I promise. — Ekaterina Sedia

The crows demur at first, but soon grow bold and eat. He talks to them. He tells them of all the things that bother him - that the politics have changed but the politicians are still the same exact people as back in the sixties, only balder and fatter; he tells them that nobody cares about anything important anymore. He tells them that freedom has nothing to do with money, or the McDonald's restaurants. The crows stop eating and listen. — Ekaterina Sedia

The spirits, he said, the souls. They are not angry at the living, they just want to help. Helping others is the only way we can prove we still matter. — Ekaterina Sedia

We suddenly feel fearful and apprehensive, naked in our perishable flesh, and for just a moment we wish we could go back to being stone - crumbling in death rather than rotting, trapped inside an immobile prison of stone rather than reduced to immaterial souls like those that now rattled within our skulls. The moment passes. There is no point in regretting irreversible decisions - one has to live with them, and we try. — Ekaterina Sedia

There's only so far you can push a horse before it collapses — Ekaterina Sedia

God has a way of guiding us sometimes — Ekaterina Sedia

You know how they say the grass is always greener on the other side? It is greener, because you're not there. And if you go you'll trample it and leave dirty footprints and probably spill something poisonous. — Ekaterina Sedia