G.A. Aiken Quotes

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.

Poetry will absorb and transmute, as it always has done, and glorify, all that we can know.

Time in the heart and sequence in the brain-- Such as destroyed Rimbaud and fooled Verlaine. And let us then take godhead by the neck-- And strangle it, and with it, rhetoric.

I really don't know enough about the structure of fiction.

I began by doing book reviews on the typewriter and then went over to short stories on the machine, meanwhile sticking to pencil for poetry.

I'm not in the least Southern; I'm entirely New England.

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.

Whitman had a profound influence on me. That was during my sophomore year when I came down with a bad attack of Whitmanitis. But he did me a lot of good, and I think the influence is discoverable.

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.

Death is a meeting place of sea and sea.

The truth--a hideous spectacle!

Death is one dream out of another flowing.

I think it's very useful to be insulated from your surrounds, because it gives you your inviolate privacy, without pressures, so that you can just be yourself.

I think there's an enormous lot of talent around, and somewhere amongst these I'm sure that something will emerge, given time.

Death is never an ending, death is a change; Death is beautiful, for death is strange; Death is one dream out of another flowing.

Declare the United States the winner and begin de-escalation.

I've never known a country to be starved into democracy.

it is not given to everyone to shine in adversity.

A spy novel?” Dagmar asked. “You two are talking about a spy nov

Éibhear isn’t my friend. He’s kin. A blood relation.”“Which means what exactly?”“To a Cadwaladr, it means that if I have good cause, I could beat the scales off his back and get away with it.

You two are perfect together. And one day . . . one day your children will change everything.

She’d left him.Without a word. Without a thought. She’d left him and now he hadfeelings.For that alone, he’d never forgive her.

I see why our little Braith likes you.”“Does she?”“Can’t you tell?”“I’m male. I have no idea what you females are thinking.

Brastias. My friend.” Uh-oh, this couldn’t be good. “Do you lie to me?”“Uh . . . no.”“See? That’s a lie!

Are you in great physical pain, or is that your thinking expression?

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.

He was her father after all. True, a father whose funeral rite she planned to dance at and toast with ale, but her father just the same.

She wanted to punch her father in his snout, but she wouldn’t. He was her father after all. True, a father whose funeral rite she planned to dance at and toast with ale, but her father just the same.

she lived her life as a dragon and never understood those who didn’t. Why anyone would want to be human was beyond her understanding... And damn it all, she was brilliant!

Izzy. Sweet, beautiful, but eternally strange Izzy.

It was a good thing I recognized you or I might have had a lovely meal of you with some parsley. And potatoes.

Good gods, female, ” Addolgar muttered. “What did you do with yourself before I came into your life?”“I lived quietly alone in my cave, ” she snapped back. “And I was quite happy there, too.

Now if you gentlemen, ” she looked at Briec, “and whateveryou are, will excuse me.

Oh, gods. Not the flying!”“I heard you mounted my sister well enough.”“I want you never to make that statement again.

How do you live with yourself, Lord Arrogant?” “Very easily, Lady Difficult. I find myself quitecharming.

Her smile was like a swift light passing across a darkened room.("Hair")

Go on, ” he offered magnanimously. “Feel free to piss on yourselves andcower helplessly.”Gods, sometimes his generosity overwhelmed him.

You ask me if you can eat dinner in your room, but you don’task me if you can torture Éibhear to take you flying?”Truly perplexed, Izzy asked softly, “Why would I ask you that?

Don't make me cover your face with a pillow until you see my side of things.""Isn't that called murder?

But this is your home''Not any longer, my poppet. Women make nests but men make bequests and scatter them. Heigh-ho!

No one referred toFearghus the Destroyer as the life of anyone’s party.

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?

My father helped you with that. . that thing you do?” “Yes. Your father helped me with that peacemaking thing I do that keeps you happily killing for a living.

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

Hope death finds you well today.

To be honest, Briec doesn’tconsider fights with humans as battles. I think he sees that more ashunting. Or a snack that runs.

Oh, sorry. I’m not . . . uh . . . interrupting something that will make me uncomfortable, am I?

Bercelak’s kin kept themselves busy by sharpening weapons, reading, talking, or setting things on fire with small bursts of flame.

I didn’t think it was possible — but this situation has managed to get worse.” “But you’re so calm, ” she observed.“That’s usually when you can tell everything has gone to shit.

Show me a person who is not an extremist about some things who is a "middle-of-the-roader" in everything and I will show you someone who is insecure.