The Gate Thief Quotes
"Like a rocket, upward until he’s a mile above Buena Vista. He hangs in the air for just a moment. Long enough to see and be seen."
"All three videos got emailed to people. All three ended up on YouTube."
"It’s an act of a god. No, not an "act of God," to use the weasel-out-of-it words in insurance policies. Not God. A god."
"And a year ago, when Danny ran away, Thor had used his clant to converse with Danny before he got too far away, and had confirmed that yes, Danny was making gates and yes, Danny finally knew what he was."
"Because if it's there, you have to reach for it."
"What if I’m rummaging in my purse for something else and I brush against it?"
"They’re kind folk, and forgiving, but they don’t know who I am."
"But you didn’t know them—what kind of men they were,"
"I’m not here as your son, sir. I’m not here as a North. I’m here as the only person in Mittlegard who can make gates."
"None of you knows what power is. There hasn’t been any real power in any of the Families for fourteen centuries."
"I can’t imagine why any of you thinks you know me at all."
"The best of your blood is buried in the dirt of Hammernip Hill."
"If he wanted us dead, we’d be having this meeting inside Hammernip Hill."
"Do you think the other Families would let my drowther informants get close enough to know anything?"
"Being an introvert isn’t a pathology, you know."
"You’re so trusting! You came here to Parry McCluer and you decide you’re going to be friends with us, and why?"
"My parents made me see a shrink because I like to be left alone."
"I’m talking about—people in general. Regular people. Even people who mean well. You’re so trusting!"
"Don’t you know how I was raised? I never met anybody outside the Family."
"I’m worried about you," she finally said. Still not looking at him. Still embarrassed. "You’re so. So."
"I know a little more about evil than you think."
"What could I do to you?" asked Pat. "But she—she can hurt you."
"That’s where you’re wrong," said Pat. "People aren’t all like that. There are people you can count on because they’d die before they’d betray you or even let you down."
"If there were such a thing as naturally occurring gates, don’t you think there’d have been one during the centuries since Loki ate all the gates?"
"I am not all-powerful. I may have the most useful magery in the world right now, the one that can change everything. I may have other people at my mercy. But I can’t even control a Great Gate that I made."
"People like you are proof that there are gods. Dangerous powerful beings who can do terrible things to people who don’t obey them."
"I came to tell you that you’re my true friend and that I can count on you in a way I can’t count on anybody else."
"You have a thousand times my power," said Loki.
"I didn’t even know I was making the gates," Danny admitted.
"Loki tricked Bel into thinking he was captive, but he was not captive."
"I didn’t harm him," said Loki, "because I am an intruder, and he is protecting his home and his friend."
"You didn’t harm him," said Danny, "because you are afraid of me."
"We have faced Bel and he has ruled the hearts of many. Bold men ran like deer from his face, but Loki did not run."
"Teaching you is the most dangerous thing that I can do," said Loki.
"He thought he had won, just as I thought I had won. But we never win."
"My gates were operating my legs and arms. Keeping me on the road."
"What you call dying or ending is nothing but changes in the shapes of things."
"Whoever it was had arrived in Silvermans’ barn. It was milking time. Leslie would be there."
"Let us go home," they were saying, straining ever so slightly against the restraint of Danny’s hearthoard.
"Only swallow," said Marion, in his heavily accented version of Westilian. "Not chew."
"Power is the only fact. Titles are decorations. Names are lies."
"It’s either high school or figure out how to save the world, and whom to save it from."
"You are nothing, Frostinch, compared to mages with real power. I have passed through a Great Gate."
"What is this Belmage? You are the last of the Enemies of Set; you are the only one who can tell me why my gate did not drive this one away."
"You can’t possibly be Christian," said Laurette. "Why can’t you ever do something because it’s fun?"
"I made him believe that he was stupid," said Anonoei, "and then told him how to be clever. I hardly need to be a manmage to do that—learned people do it all the time."
"Most men do, if I want them to," said Anonoei.
"I don’t want him smarter," said Anonoei. "I’m not going to use him to defeat Bexoi. Manmagery doesn’t let me add new powers to my clients—they are what they are."
"I think it’s time to let the Families use the Great Gate," said Hermia.
"All I can do is muddle through as best I can," said Danny.
"What do you know of war?" asked Zog contemptuously.
"I know that you lost every one you fought in," said Danny.
"There is to be no violence at the place where I’ve made the Great Gate," said Danny coldly.
"I didn’t mean to rule over them," Father protested.
"Assume nothing," said Danny. "Treat them as equals."
"I’m creating a public gate to take you back to the farm. But it’s a one-way gate."
"Danny, do you know what war means?" asked Thor. "Do you understand that someday you’re going to have to kill somebody?"
"I’ve had a man killed before," said Danny, "and I’ve seen death."
"Reality is so overrated. In between catastrophes it settles down to the most-boring-possible-explanation-for-everything."
"‘Who’s the father of your baby?’ ‘Oh, Daddy, it was a god,’" said Pat.
"Is nothing sacred?" demanded Bexoi. "Are there no bonds between women?"
"I’m Anonoei," she said. But no sound came out.
"You knew that I couldn’t kill your baby, even though you killed mine," said Wad.
"It’s not the magery that makes the man, but what he does with it, and with any other opportunity that he is given," said Wad.
"I put a baby in that belly once," said Wad. "The boy that she named ‘Oath’ was mine."