01UndatedHer power was a wrenching thing, starless black and sorrow, but my magic was something more...it was hope.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
03UndatedWho wanted to be smiled at by the girl that trailed shadows like pets, conjured snakes and waited for Death, her bridegroom, to steal her from these walls?Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
04UndatedI used to think fear either numbed or nudged. Now I knew fear did neither. Fear was a key that fit every person's hollow spaces---those things that kept us cold at night and that place where we retreated when no one was looking---and all it could do was unlock what was already there.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
05UndatedFear was a reminder that even the insubstantial could kill. But insubstantial meant it had no shape. It couldn't be conquered or tamed or avoided. Only moved through, with force and will.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
06UndatedI love you," he murmured into my hair. "You are my night and stars, the fate I would fix myself to in any life.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
07UndatedI wanted a love thick with time, as inscrutable as if a lathe had carved it from night and as familiar as the marrow in my bones. I wanted the impossible, which made it that much easier to push out of my mind.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
08UndatedNeither the secret whirring song of the stars nor the sonorous canticles of the earth knew the language that sprang up in the space between us. It was a dialect of heartbeats, strung together with the lilt of long suffering and the incandescent hope of an infinite future.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
09UndatedAll war is philosophical. That's why we call it war. Strip it of its paint and it's nothing more than murder.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
10UndatedWhat property is left to dreamers when every idea has been tamed and conquered? What about the poet who dreams of embracing the night sky? It's utterly impossible. And yet the thought of it sparks song and dance, poetry and philosophy.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
11UndatedBeauty, coveted though it was, could not outlive you. Only actions would.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
13UndatedYou know nothing about me." "I know your soul. Everything else is an ornament.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
15UndatedHe loved her. And she loved him. And in such bliss does devastation grow.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
19UndatedI promised you the moon for your throne and stars to wear in your hair," said Amar, gesturing inside. "And I always keep my promises.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
20UndatedFather once said the real language of diplomacy was in the space between words.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
21UndatedRuling Akaran is a strange task. In many ways, it is like balancing an illusion. You must separate the illusion of what you see and the reality of its consequences," he said. "Tell me, my queen, are you ready to play with fate?Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
22UndatedWhere are we going?" I asked. "The main road leads to all of the major kingdoms.""Not all of them," said Amar.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
23UndatedThe worms do not take heed of caste and rank when they feast on our ashes," the Raja said. "Your subjects will not remember you. They will not remember the shade of your eyes, the colors you favored, or the beauty of your wives. They will only remember your impression upon their hearts and whether you filled them with glee or grief. That is your immortality.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
24UndatedSurviving isn't just about cutting out your heart and burning every feeling into ash. Sometimes it means taking whatever is thrown at you, beautiful or grotesque, poisonous or blissful, and carving out your life with the pieces you're given.Roshani Chokshi / quote ↗
