Patricia A. McKillip Quotes

Quotes about:

Heart Imagination Language Lying Silence Writing

Imagination is the golden-eyed monster that never sleeps. It must be fed; it cannot be ignored.

Patricia A. McKillip

Sleep, Imagination, Golden

50 Copy quote
Those who fear the imagination condemn it: something childish, they say, something monsterish, misbegotten. Not all of us dream awake. But those of us who do have no choice.

Patricia A. McKillip

Dream, Writing, Imagination

37 Copy quote
She is our moon. Our tidal pull. She is the rich deep beneath the sea, the buried treasure, the expression in the owl's eye, the perfume in the wild rose. She is what the water says when it moves.

Patricia A. McKillip

Moving, Eye, Moon

Patricia A. McKillip (2015). “Solstice Wood”, p.77, Hachette UK

27 Copy quote
Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it.

Patricia A. McKillip

Moving, Night, Fire

Patricia A. McKillip (1979). “Riddle of Stars”

15 Copy quote
The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more.

Patricia A. McKillip

Book, Reading, People

Patricia A. McKillip (2008). “The Bell at Sealey Head”, p.30, Penguin

16 Copy quote
The man was hit in one eye by a stone, and that eye turned inward so that it looked into his mind, and he died of what he saw there

Patricia A. McKillip

Eye, Men, Mind

Patricia A. McKillip (2017). “The Forgotten Beasts of Eld”, p.76, Tachyon Publications

4 Copy quote
It’s an odd thing, happiness. Some people take happiness from gold. Or black pearls. And some of us, far more fortunate, take their happiness from periwinkles.

Patricia A. McKillip

People, Black, Gold

Patricia A. McKillip (2015). “The Changeling Sea”, p.68, Hachette UK

37 Copy quote
Words, he decided, were inadequate at best, impossible at worst. They meant too many things. Or they meant nothing at all.

Patricia A. McKillip

Impossible, Worst, Decided

Patricia A. McKillip (2015). “Patricia McKillip SF Gateway Omnibus Volume One: In the Forests of Serre, Alphabet of Thorn, The Bell at Sealey Head”, p.56, Hachette UK

10 Copy quote
Branches grew from his hands, his hair. His thoughts tangled like roots in the ground. He strained upward. Pitch ran like tears down his back. His name formed his core; ring upon ring of silence built around it. His face rose high above the forests. Gripped to earth, bending to the wind's fury, he disappeared within himself, behind the hard, wind-scrolled shield of his experiences.

Patricia A. McKillip

Hair, Hands, Wind

Patricia A. McKillip (1999). “Riddle-Master”, p.535, Penguin

15 Copy quote
When you put your hands and mind and heart into the knowing of a thing ... there is no room in you for fear.

Patricia A. McKillip

Heart, Hands, Knowing

8 Copy quote
What do you think love is - a thing to startle from the heart like a bird at every shout or blow? You can fly from me, high as you choose into your darkness, but you will see me always beneath you, no matter how far away, with my face turned to you. My heart is in your heart. I gave it to you with my name that night and you are its guardian, to treasure it, or let it whither and die. I do not understand you. I am angry with you. I am hurt and helpless, but nothing will fill the ache of the hollowness in me where your name would echo if I lost you.

Patricia A. McKillip

Hurt, Heart, Love Is

"The Forgotten Beasts of Eld". Book by Patricia A. McKillip, 1974.

7 Copy quote
Imagination is best fed by reality, an odd diet for something nonexistent there are few details of daily life and its broad range of emotional context that can't be transformed into food for the imagination.

Patricia A. McKillip

Reality, Emotional, Imagination

9 Copy quote
That's the beginning of magic. Let your imagination run and follow it.

Patricia A. McKillip

Running, Imagination, Magic

Patricia A. McKillip (2005). “Alphabet Of Thorn”, p.159, Penguin

7 Copy quote
At its best, fantasy rewards the reader with a sense of wonder about what lies within the heart of the commonplace world. The greatest tales are told over and over, in many ways, through centuries. Fantasy changes with the changing times, and yet it is still the oldest kind of tale in the world, for it began once upon a time, and we haven't heard the end of it yet.

Patricia A. McKillip

Lying, Heart, Once Upon A Time

Patricia A. McKillip (2016). “Dreams of Distant Shores”, p.266, Tachyon Publications

9 Copy quote
Wisdom never learned silence, and it is most annoying when least wanted.

Patricia A. McKillip

Silence, Annoying, Wanted

"The Forgotten Beasts of Eld". Book by Patricia A. McKillip, 1974.

7 Copy quote
I would be mute, beautiful, changless as the earth for you. I would be your memory, without age, always innocent, always waiting in the King's white house. I would do that for you and no other man inthe relm. But it would be a lie and I will do anything but lie to you - I swear that.

Patricia A. McKillip

Beautiful, Kings, Memories

4 Copy quote
The moon grew full, then slowly pared itself down until it shriveled into a ghostly boat riding above the roiling dark. Then it fell out of the sky. They climbed into it, left land behind, and floated out to sea.

Patricia A. McKillip

Dark, Moon, Sea

Patricia A. McKillip (1999). “Song for the Basilisk”, p.10, Penguin

8 Copy quote
If you have no faith in yourself, then have faith in the things you call truth. You know what must be done. You may not have courage or trust or understanding or the will to do it, but you know what must be done. You can't turn back. There is now answer behind you. You fear what you cannot name. So look at it and find a name for it. Turn your face forward and learn. Do what must be done. -Deth to Morgon, Prince of Hed-

Patricia A. McKillip

Fear, Names, Understanding

Patricia A. McKillip (1979). “Riddle of Stars”

9 Copy quote
Then you will have to trust me. Beyond logic, beyond reason, beyond hope, trust me.

Patricia A. McKillip

Logic, Trust Me, Reason

Patricia A. McKillip (1999). “Riddle-Master”, p.211, Penguin

6 Copy quote
[Imagination] must be visited constantly, or else it begins to become restless and emit strange bellows at embarrassing moments; ignoring it only makes it grow larger and noisier.

Patricia A. McKillip

Imagination, Strange, Moments

7 Copy quote
There was the gaudy patch of sunflowers beside the west gate of the palace of the Prince of Ombria, that did nothing all day long but turn their golden-haired, thousand-eyed faces to follow the sun.

Patricia A. McKillip

Long, Sunflower, Golden

Patricia A. McKillip (2002). “Ombria in Shadow”, p.14, Penguin

27 Copy quote
Men see what they are most afraid of.

Patricia A. McKillip

Men

Patricia A. McKillip (2017). “The Forgotten Beasts of Eld”, p.69, Tachyon Publications

4 Copy quote
I don't teach lies, but I do not teach all I know is true.

Patricia A. McKillip

Lying, Teach, Knows

Patricia A. McKillip (2015). “Od Magic”, p.82, Hachette UK

4 Copy quote
But you must stop playing among his ghosts -- it's stupid and dangerous and completely pointless. He's trying to lay them to rest here, not stir them up, and you seem eager to drag out all the sad old bones of his history and make them dance again. It's not nice, and it's not fair.

Patricia A. McKillip

Nice, Stupid, Trying

4 Copy quote
Do you become in visible?' 'No. I'm there, if you know how to look. I stand between the place you look at and the place you see. Behind what you expect to see. If you expect to see me, you do. I listen in places where no one expects me to be.

Patricia A. McKillip

Looks, Behinds, Know How

Patricia A. McKillip (2005). “Alphabet Of Thorn”, p.54, Penguin

4 Copy quote

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Born: February 29, 1948
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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