Aiken Quotes & Sayings

How shall we praise the magnificence of the dead,
The great man humbled, the haughty brought to dust? — Conrad Aiken

Sudden wealth was the great insulator, second only to sudden bereavement. — Joan Aiken

Listen to me well, Low Born, don't think for a second I won't cut your heart from your worthless hide and wear it on my head ... like a hat. — G.A. Aiken

I already explained this. I don't like you. True, I don't like most people, but I especially dislike you. I could start my own religion based on how much I dislike you. — G.A. Aiken

Braith opened her eyes and screamed at what hovered above her, "Gods! Death comes for me!"
The horrifying face of death curled its lip at her and growled, "Well, that's charmin'." Death sat back in its chair, hands resting on its knees. "This face is not me fault, ya know?" Death looked off, thought a moment. Its finger traced one of the deep gouges across its jaw. "This one actually is kind of me fault." She pointed at the other side of her face, where part of her chin was missing. "And this one. A bit of barney at the pub."
...
"That was not death," he whispered. "That was our Great-Aunt Brigida."
"Brigida? Brigida the Foul?" He nodded. "I thought she was dead."
Addolgar shook his head and whispered, "She just won't die. — G.A. Aiken

For the first time in six months, she wasn't thinking of her own misery. She was thinking of others - and how to make their misery worse. — G.A. Aiken

She let him finish, then pinched his nose between her thumb and forefinger. She twisted until she got a cry of pain from him.
"Don't touch. I don't like to be touched."
"I see that."
"Say you're sorry or I'll take it off."
"Sorry. Sorry!"
She released him. He rubbed his nose and pouted. She couldn't help but smile. So very cute. And so very charming. Of course she still wouldn't trust him with her dead horse. — G.A. Aiken

He looked like you ripped his heart out of his chest, threw it to
the ground, and stomped all over it while singing a jaunty tune."
Annwyl shrugged at Morfyd's bemused expression. "I might have
seen that look before on his brother."
"Perhaps when you stabbed our father?"
Annwyl laughed. "No. Then he just looked proud. — G.A. Aiken

The hiss was now becoming a roar - the whole world was a vast moving screen of snow - but even now it said peace, it said remoteness, it said cold, it said sleep. — Conrad Aiken

You have strong thighs and are very, um, handsome. — G.A. Aiken

"And I stole some oxen jerky out of Bercelak's bag. He makes the best oxen jerky."
"Bercelak the Vengeful cooks?"
"Aye. And he's surprisingly good at it, too! — G.A. Aiken

Dagmar knew there were worse things in this world than pretending to be a caring, demure woman. For instance, actually being a caring, demure woman. — G.A. Aiken

(Ragnar just came back from the war.)
Then Keita the Viper spun around and ran into his arms, hugging him tight. "This is all your fault!" she accused.
"What is?"
"How much I missed you! And I was shockingly worried about you. I actually cared if you were hurt or had been damaged in some way. She leaned back, squinted up at him. "You weren't, were you? Damaged?"
"Not so that I won't heal."
"Good." She rested her head on his chest. "Believe it or not, I don't know what I'd have done if something happened to you." Keita abruptly pulled back from him and punched him in the chest. "What have you done to me, foreigner? Well, let me make it plain that you'll not trap me in your evil web of amazing sex and unconditional love! I'm stronger than that!"
And Ragnar sighed ... loudly. — G.A. Aiken

Erin eventually put in a call to one of the Crows who worked as an executive at a bank. She told her to set up a business account for Kera's "nonprofit thing. I don't know. Something with dogs and Marines. No. Not porn." Erin glanced at her. "Right? Not porn."
Kera stared at the woman for several long seconds before replying, "No. Not porn. — G.A. Aiken

You two are perfect together. And one day ... one day your children will change everything. — G.A. Aiken

Lincoln's reference to government of the people, by the people, for the people is a generally satisfactory definition of democracy. I say generally because when it comes to fair and workable details, democracy fails to completely meet the criteria enunciated by Lincoln by a rather wide margin. — George Aiken

Don't do that."
"Don't do what?"
"Sneak around."
"Do you mean walk around? Because that's what I actually did. I usually crouch more when I sneak - and then I kill someone. — G.A. Aiken

What are we doing with him?" Briec asked eagerly. "Are we throwing him out a window? Let's throw him out a window! Or off the roof! — G.A. Aiken

Dagmar, really. Annwyl has always been crazy. All you've been doing the last few years is muffling it. You've never shut it off. Not completely."
"And did Annwyl just threaten me? Me?"
"She threatens me and Briec all the time. I wouldn't take it too personally."
"That, in no way, makes me feel better!" She stopped in front of him, stamping her foot. "Why are you being so bloody calm about this? Annwyl took out that woman's eyes."
"I'm sure she took them only after she took her head. You know Annwyl does her dismembering in a very orderly way. — G.A. Aiken

His affection for the human grew steadily by the day. Sometimes by the minute. And it wasn't simply her beauty, but her utter lack of fear of everything and anything except her brother. She didn't fear dying. She didn't fear battle. And, most importantly, she didn't fear Fearghus. She touched him. Ran her hands across his scales and through his mane.
But it was when he covered her up with the fur and she sighed his name in her sleep, that he lost his heart. — G.A. Aiken

I'm tired and I don't know what day it is. — Clay Aiken

All lovely things will have an ending, All lovely things will fade and die; And youth, that's now so bravely spending, Will beg a penny by and by. — Conrad Aiken

Normally, I'd lie and connive and do whatever necessary to make you take me into the south."
"But ... "
More tears began to flow. "But that thing ... "
"Thing? What thing?"
"That thing ... in one's head ... that tells you when something would be wrong to do. It won't let me do it."
Feeling a sudden high level of annoyance, Gwenvael carefully asked, "Do you mean your ... conscience?"
Her tears turned into hysterical sobs, and she went down on her side, her head dropping into his lap.
"Dagmar! Everyone has a conscience."
"I don't!"
"Of course you do."
"I'm a politician, Gwenvael! Of course, I don't have a conscience. At least I didn't. Now I'm cursed with one. And it's your fault!"
Somehow he knew that last bit would happen. — G.A. Aiken

Faith is not about a building or a lifestyle. You can minister in many ways besides attending services or being a preacher. And I think that that's what I feel most thankful for
that I have the opportunity to minister now, in my own way. — Clay Aiken

Explain to me again why we're at a whorehouse?"
Gwenvael sighed around his ale. "Because, my thick-headed
brother, if you want information about human men then you go to the
one place all human men come to eventually. — G.A. Aiken

The days, the nights, flow one by one above us. The hours go silently over our lifted faces. We are like dreamers who walk beneath a sea. Beneath high walls we flow in the sun together. We sleep, we wake, we laugh, we pursue, we flee. — Conrad Aiken

A song is like a smile. If you meet people from another country, even if you don't speak the same language, you know what a smile means. A song works the same way. Music produces feelings that need no translation. — Clay Aiken

Eat an apple,sing a song,
Don't touch a snake as it wriggles along.
Run for an hour, walk for a day,
Hark to the birds and heed what they say. — Joan Aiken

The biggest problem I had - and the biggest problem teenagers have - is not how they dress, how they look or how they act or talk. It's how they see themselves - their self-esteem. In the tenth grade, I realized I am who I am. I've got big ears and big feet. I can etiher sulk around or I can be happy with who I am. The minute I decided to be confident with who I was, all that other stuff stopped. It's all in the way you carry yourself. — Clay Aiken

I need someone I can count on. Until recently, you were the most reliable of us all. I sincerely hope that hasn't changed for good." "Don't go there, brother."
"Over some male not worthy of you."
He went there! — G.A. Aiken

There's a feat tonight! There'll be dancing."
"A feast?" Kachka asked. "Who are we sacrificing? — G.A. Aiken

How's your father?"
"How do you think he is? You stabbed him in the foot."
"I would have aimed for his heart, but I wasn't sure he actually had one. Do any of you have one? — G.A. Aiken

One is least sure of one's self, sometimes, when one is most positive. — Conrad Aiken

And the mist of snow, as he had foreseen, was still on it - a ghost of snow falling in the bright sunlight, softly and steadily floating and turning and pausing, soundlessly meeting the snow that covered, as with a transparent mirage, the bare bright cobbles. He loved it - he stood still and loved it. Its beauty was paralyzing - beyond all words, all experience, all dream. No fairy-story he had ever read could be compared with it - none had ever given him this extraordinary combination of ethereal loveliness with a something else, unnameable, which was just faintly and deliciously terrifying.
("Silent Snow, Secret Snow") — Conrad Aiken

Well? What do you think?
I think you're the most amazing female I've ever met. And I would like to fuck you all night long. Bend over. What do I think about what?
She sighed. Typical male. — G.A. Aiken

Good gods, you look like cold shit." Ghleanna gazed at her brother and again wondered why she hadn't smashed his bloody egg when she had the chance. Her mother would have eventually forgiven her.
"Thank you, brother. And you look fat and happy. Having an easy time of it here, are you?" "Fat? Fat?" He speared the moaning human at his feet. "How dare you! My human form is in fighting trim, you callous cow." "If you say so. — G.A. Aiken

I sometimes think I might be autistic because I like to know - I need to know - my beginnings and my ends. I don't have to be in control of it, but I need to know what's going on. — Clay Aiken

The only reason people go to bars is to get drunk and have sex. To me, bars are what hell is like. — Clay Aiken

Stop it! Both of you!" the dragon called out. "I have enough beauty to share with everyone!" Ignoring the beautiful but useless dragon, — G.A. Aiken

She wants a truce.
With me?
Aye. She's quite. adamant about it. I can try to put her off until Ghleanna is at full strength but - No, no. See what her terms are.
My Lady?
I am not my mother, peacemaker. I can be reasonable. It's a new time for us all. A new time of hope and of change and of - You want access to the coast so you can attack the Lightnings, don't you?
And it is time for those barbarian Lightnings to bow down before me. — G.A. Aiken

The wandering one, the inquisitive dreamer of dreams, the eternal asker of answers, stands in the street, and lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain. — Conrad Aiken

A children's writer should, ideally, be a dedicated semi-lunatic, a kind of poet with a marvelous idea, who, preferably, when not committing the marvellous idea to paper, does something else of a quite different kind, so as to acquire new and rich experience. — Joan Aiken

Separate we come, and separate we go, And this be it known, is all that we know. — Conrad Aiken

Is it a comb, a fan, a torn dress, a curtain, a bed, an empty rice-bin? It hardly seems to matter. The Chinese poet makes a heart-breaking poetry out of these quite as naturally as Keats did out of the song of a nightingale heard in a spring garden. It is rarely dithyrambic, rarely high-pitched: part of its charm is its tranquility, its self-control. And the humblest reads it with as much emotion as the most learned. — Conrad Aiken

The wind shrieks, the wind grieves; It dashes the leaves on walls, it whirls then again; And the enormous sleeper vaguely and stupidly dreams And desires to stir, to resist a ghost of pain. — Conrad Aiken

Time is a dream ... a destroying dream;
It lays great cities in dust, it fills the seas;
It covers the face of beauty, and tumbles walls. — Conrad Aiken

[At a musical concert:] ... the music's pure algebra of enchantment. — Conrad Aiken

The witch's words were cut off and Izzy stumbled back into the earth.
Izzy looked up at the dragoness standing over her. her grandmother smiled. "What did I miss? I sensed I was missing something!"
Rhiannon looked down at her claws, "Did I step in something? I feel like I stepped in something. — G.A. Aiken

I don't like this," his brother told him as they walked down the stairs.
"You don't like anything. I've heard you complain about the air."
"It irritates me when it whistles. — G.A. Aiken

But I was going to be a teacher my entire life, so I wasn't counting on money to much. — Clay Aiken

Bercelak's kin kept themselves busy by sharpening weapons, reading, talking, or setting things on fire with small bursts of flame. — G.A. Aiken

I am never going to sound like Johnny Mathis. — Clay Aiken

I know I'm not an easy She-dragon to. not fear." "I'm not afraid of you, Ghleanna. I've never been afraid of you. To be quite honest. I think you're amazing. I always have. Since the first time you ignored me. — G.A. Aiken

I'm not different. I'm not different at all. The wrapping is different but the gift is still the same. — Clay Aiken

Daughters of the Steppes had their three-year-olds playing these games to help them understand the concept of divide, conquer, and destroy so that the next city or town over just gives us what we ask for. — G.A. Aiken

I want to make sure that no matter how long I go through this, I don't fall into the trap of changing and modifying how I do things that aren't a positive example. I want to remain somebody that the entire family can listen to or watch. — Clay Aiken

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. — Howard Aiken

Sulien held up the broken spear, one piece in each hand. "A warhammer did this?"
"You saw that hammer the Lightning almost hit Addolgar with. And that's not even the one he uses during battles. That one is bloody huge. Nearly as
big as the bastard's head."
Her father chuckled and stepped around her. "The only purpose of this spear was to protect you - and it did. Its job is now done." He started to
throw the pieces into a bin he kept for trash.
"Don't you dare throw that out."
"Why not? It's broken, and repairing it would be useless. It'l only break again."
"But you made it for me."
"You cling to what is meaningless, child. Just like your mother sometimes, only with her it's mostly grudges. — G.A. Aiken

Males will always make excuses for the pretty. — G.A. Aiken

Now if you gentlemen," she looked at Briec, "and whatever
you are, will excuse me. — G.A. Aiken

Every kiss is a kiss you can never get back. — Clay Aiken

I went to school for special education. I always assumed when I had the opportunity I would love to try and help kids with disabilities. — Clay Aiken

Before him, numberless lovers smiled and talked. And death was observed with sudden cries, And birth with laughter and pain. And the trees grew taller and blacker against the skies And night came down again. — Conrad Aiken

The feeling to bury one's head in a ditch can be an overwhelming one, but Annwyl fought it all the same. — G.A. Aiken

I had been told by a number of people that if you get half of what you want on your first album, you're doing really well. Pretty much every single thing they had was something that I liked. There were maybe one or two songs I didn't like, and they were taken off the album quickly. — Clay Aiken

You have women generals? She goes into combat? And you let her?"
"What you'll learn, lad, is that you don't let the females of the Southlands do a damn thing. You simply get out of their way or pray they don't run you down. — G.A. Aiken

He shrugged. "You're not going to like it, I'm afraid."
"Well ... to be honest, I don't like anything. — G.A. Aiken

I kind of had my life planned out for me. I'd be married at some point, have, you know, 1.5 children, and be a principal possibly one day. But I think that that was kind of my problem. I allowed myself to plan out my life and didn't let provident direction guide my life. — Clay Aiken

Night's winged horses
No one can outpace
But midnight is no moment
Midnight is a place.
Meet me at Midnight,
Among the Queen Anne's Lace
Midnight is not a moment,
Midnight is a place
When, when shall I meet you
When shall I see your face
For I am living in time at present
But you are living in space.
Time is only a corner
Age is only a fold
A year is merely a penny
Spent from a century's gold.
So meet me, meet me at midnight
(With sixty seconds' grace)
Midnight is not a moment;
Midnight is a place. — Joan Aiken

I just don't understand our brother. A human." Briec gave a great sigh, causing Gwenvael to roll his eyes in annoyance.
"You don't know anything, Briec. She's different."
"Don't you really mean crazed, baby brother?"
Gwenvael saw Morfyd's white scales swooping toward them. He stood up. Both he and Briec were already in human form and dressed.
"You're just mad she slapped you around." Gwenvael looked at his brother. "Like a bitch."
Briec stood up. Slightly taller than Gwenvael, but still shorter than Fearghus, he tended to be just as much fun to torture as their older sibling. "I let her hit me."
"You had to. Otherwise she would have killed you where you stood. — G.A. Aiken

If you've gotten yourself into a situation when Clay Aiken is going to talk about his feelings with you, it's time to kill yourself. — Penn Jillette

What's the weirdest thing you've pierced?"
"Earlobes," he plainly stated.
"Earlobes?"
"Yeah," he said. "Once you've held a couple dozen penises in your hand, earlobes are just weird. — Sean Aiken

I don't really feel like I have anybody to answer to but myself and God and the people I love. — Clay Aiken

It wasn't the first time he'd run for his life. And it most likely would
not be the last. In the past few decades, though, he'd mostly run from
angry fathers who'd found him where they felt he should not be. Or he'd
run from town guards - sent by angry fathers who'd found him where they
felt he should not be. — G.A. Aiken

Actually, I don't hate cats, I'm just kind of afraid of them. — Clay Aiken

He whose first emotion, on the view of an excellent work, is to undervalue or depreciate it, will never have one of his own to show. — Conrad Aiken

A bored Gwenvael is an entire town
destroyed accidently. — G.A. Aiken

The truth
a hideous spectacle! — Conrad Aiken

Because I'm from North Carolina, you think I'm the Andy Griffith show, or something? — Clay Aiken

Take good care of your dragon," Kachka said as she moved on. "He will need your protection, being so weak and pathetic. — G.A. Aiken

Maryanne paid for her purchases, and once everything was stuffed into the blue plastic bags, she headed toward the exit. That's when she spotted her tail again... not six feet away.

"Here," she said, thrusting her purchases at J.Z.'s middle. "Since you're sticking to me like used bubble gum to my shoes, you can make yourself useful. Carry these to my car, please."

She left him, arms full of bags, jaw agape, and wend to buy a soft pretzel and an icy drink. — Ginny Aiken

You wanted hatchlings."
"I know. I just didn't want those hatchlings. Personally, I blame your father."
Bercelak's eyes grew wide. "Excuse me?"
On a burst of laughter, she exclaimed, "Well that came out horribly wrong! — G.A. Aiken

If I'm signing autographs and I see one hundred people in a line I've got to remind myself, "That person is one one-hundredth of my day, but to them I'm their day." You know what I mean? Unless they meet J.Lo later on. — Clay Aiken

Come back, true love! Sweet youth, return!
But time goes on, and will, unheeding,
Though hands will reach, and eyes will yearn,
And the wild days set true hearts bleeding. — Conrad Aiken

You are, however, surprisingly light of touch."
"Pardon?"
"The way you're holding my hand. I always thought you'd be more of a mauler. Like a diseased wolf chewing the knuckles off me fist."
"That's very nice."
"Not really."
"I was being sarcastic."
"Oh. I see. Where are we? — G.A. Aiken

Husband?"
"Aye. Husband."
"The slow-witted one that's been following you? I thought he
was your servant. — G.A. Aiken

You want me to be honest with you?" Vigholf snapped. "You want me to tell you why I have my hungry face as you call it? Because of you. Because I'm hungry for you. If there's anything I want to eat - it's you."
Rhona stepped back, hands on hips, and accused, "You cannibalistic bastard!" — G.A. Aiken

I feel nothing."
Crouching down beside her, Bercelak took a cloth from off the table and placed it over the wound. "Nothing? You feel no pain?"
"Oh. I feel pain. Lots of pain. But nothing else. — G.A. Aiken

Declare the United States the winner and begin de-escalation. — George Aiken

Music I heard with you was more than music. And bread I broke with you was more than bread. — Conrad Aiken

I'm not very keen for doves or hawks. I think we need more owls. — George Aiken

She wasn't part of it," Addolgar cut in. "And she saved my life."
"Who cares about your life?" Bercelak demanded.
Addolgar was silent for a moment before he replied, "I do."
Braith studied the dragon who sat next to her. "You had to think about that reply?"
"Wanted to make sure it wasn't a trick question, didn't I? — G.A. Aiken

He stopped before opening the door and faced her. "You'll leave the window open for me and you'll be naked. When I come back, I'll take what I want from you, as many times as I want to." He grinned; it was pure and raw and astonishingly beautiful. "Understand me Lady Dagmar?" She shook her head. "No. You'll have to explain it to me."
"I will. Even if I have to tie you to bed and explain it to you again and again and again." He looked over one more time. "And don't play with yourself after I'm gone. Don't want you wearing my pussy out before I've had a chance to use it." With his hand on the door, Gwenvael rewarded her with the warmest smile she'd seen from anyone. "Besides, you look so beautiful when you come, I don't want to miss a second of it. — G.A. Aiken

Shortly after my dad died, my mom figured that if I could do a few commercials, I'd get a college fund. — Liam Aiken

And you're too hard on him because he reminds you of your father."
"From the time he was twenty winters I kept finding him with my father's kitchen staff."
"He's lusty."
"He's a whore. — G.A. Aiken

It was dusk - winter dusk. Snow lay white and shining over the pleated hills, and icicles hung from the forest trees. Snow lay piled on the dark road across Willoughby Wold, but from dawn men had been clearing it with brooms and shovels. There were hundreds of them at work, wrapped in sacking because of the bitter cold, and keeping together in groups for fear of the wolves, grown savage and reckless from hunger. — Joan Aiken

They come from Mobile. Aiken. From Newport News. From Marietta. From Meridian. And the sounds of these places in their mouths make you think of love. When you ask them where they are from, they tilt their heads and say "Mobile" and you think you've been kissed. They say "Aiken" and you see a white butterfly glance off a fence with a torn wing. They say "Nagadoches" and you want to say "Yes, I will." You don't know what these towns are like, but you love what happens to the air when they open their lips and let the names ease out. — Toni Morrison

She looked down at the letter she had clutched in her hand. It could wait until tomorrow.
Silently she turned and went to get something soothing to drink. Or, at the very least, some hard ale. She needed something to help her sleep because the last image she'd witnessed before turning away from the chamber would have her awake and obsessing for hours. The image of Annwyl the Bloody, known terror of the Dark Plains, lovingly running her hand down Fearghus's snout ... and Fearghus the Destroyer letting her. — G.A. Aiken

She again patted the ground beside her. "Now come. Sit beside me. I will play with your cock while we eat."
Elina hadn't even finished chewing the second bite of her food before the dragon suddenly dove into place next to her. A smile on his handsome face, his eyebrows wiggling in anticipation.
He was adorably pathetic.
"Take care of your horse first, Dolt."
"Take care of him?"
"He cannot spend the all night wearing saddle and equipment."
"Aye, but ... "
"I am not going anywhere. My hands will still be here to play with cock when you get back."
"Promise? — G.A. Aiken

Kill first, ask questions of the corpse later — G.A. Aiken