Zen Cho Quotes

But a woman should not marry where there is no respect. Respect is the most important thing.

I can speak four dialects, but none of them is fairy language.

You like the gentleman, then?" said Muna.
"I don't dislike him," said Henrietta unpromisingly.
[...]
"I don't dislike cabbage," Muna found herself saying, "but I should not consider marrying it. Not disliking seems a poor foundation for future happiness.

Zacharias's study bore the marks of his predecessors, whose taste had run decidedly stoicheiotical. They had had a fondness for skulls with burning lights in their eye sockets, crystal balls in which mysterious shapes came and went, and dark velvet window curtains traced with obscure runes.

Why, all the greatest magic comes down to blood," said Mak Genggang. "And who knows blood better than a woman?

[A] life passed amid the feuds and rivalries of a girls' school had left Prunella not wholly unprepared for battle.

Affection there had always been between them, whatever their disagreements - and there had been more of these than Zacharias had permitted Sir Stephen to know.

The damnable thing about Damerell, thought Zacharias, was that he never failed to observe precisely what you would conceal.

Since the decision to become a parent is invariably self-interested, it is my belief that a parent's obligation is to the child, and the child's obligation is to itself.

The aunts' conception of the right to privacy went far enough to allow you to close the toilet door when you were peeing, but no further.

The caterpillars were a problem, however. Fat, fuzzy and complacent, they sat upon his vegetables in veritable hordes, ignoring him until he addressed one directly.

"Good morning, sir," he said.

The caterpillar paused the busy movement of its jaws to reply:
"Pleasant weather, this, eh?"

It was an ideal summer's day. The skies stretched out in endless blue overhead, unmarred by a single wisp of cloud; the fresh scent of greenery and earth rose into the nostrils, imparting a lively pleasure in being alive and outdoors.

"You seem troubled, sir, if you don't mind me saying so," said the caterpillar.

Zacharias experienced a brief internal struggle, but decided upon candour.

It is a mother's duty to teach her daughters about the uses of blood, particularly a magical daughter.

But that was the trouble with children, Sir Stephen reflected. They were confoundedly liable to pattern themselves upon one's conduct, when one would rather they simply did what they were told.

I shall lay the path for you. There is no reason you should run into any trouble, provided you are sensible." "It sounds perfectly straightforward," said Sakti, who had never been sensible in her life.

What a mother hen I am become!" he said soberly. "If I were my old self I should not start at every shadow, and be alarmed when you stumble, but one's anxiety rises in proportion to one's incapacity to do anything about it.

I think US/UK genre has become more open to "diverse" writers and writing; there's a genuine interest in reading work from countries outside the US/UK and hearing voices that have been historically shut out, but at the same time, people are quite lazy. That sounds harsh, but I include myself in it - your tastes are shaped by what you've read and watched before, and it takes a little effort to understand stories that use a different voice, that follow different storytelling conventions, that are trying to subvert the dominant paradigm. There's a quite large group of people who are "yay diversity" in theory, but I think the number of people who have then said to themselves, "OK, if I'm committed to this, I need to start reading outside my comfort zone and making an effort" is maybe a little smaller.

I thought: if I die, I hope I get reincarnated into a mosquito so I can bite that fucker kau-kau.

Are you going? What shall you wear?"
"I shall go in what I am standing in," said Mak Genggang. "A witch is always appropriate whatever her attire.

How could you die and not be old enough to hear about premarital sex? How could you die and still not be allowed to fall in love or be honest? Surely not everything had to wait for university and a good job. Passion and truth had to trump even those things.

But one may like someone enough to kiss them without liking them enough to confide in them. The two are quite different emotions.

Magic ran in the family. Even her mother's second cousin, who was adopted, did small spells on the side. She sold these from a stall in Kota Bharu. Her main wares were various types of fruit fried in batter, but if you bought five pisang or cempedak goreng, she threw in a jampi for free.

... it is strange to know you would be cast off by the people who greet you so warmly, if they knew the whole truth about you.

I might go anywhere and do any magic I pleased if I were Peter, not Prunella.

The first time she saw the boy across the classroom, Ah Lee knew she was in love because she tasted durian on her tongue.

Love was like swallowing a cili padi whole.

I brought seaweed snacks from home,' chimed in another kid. "Seaweed got iron, right?"
'I don't think the teachers meant that kind of iron,' said Hui Ann.

I have always admired your refusal, in the pursuit of your convictions, ever to be constrained by considerations of humanity - much less of ordinary good manners.

Goodbye," said Siew Tsin.
"See you next time," said Lady Meng, more accurately.
"Will you remember me when I come again?"
"Of course," said Lady Meng. "I miss you every time.

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Zacharias, my dear, I do not believe I am misled by partiality when I say you are impossible to miss in this room," said Lady Wythe.

One might have thought you had never met my aunt Georgiana," said Rollo, with the steeliness of despair. "She is the one with the false curls and glowing eyes and smoke rising from her jaws. Do not you recollect her?"
"She did strike me as possessing unusual force of character," admitted Damerell.

Your amoral ingenuity in the pursuit of your interest is perfectly shocking," said Zacharias severely. "Yes, isn't it?" said Prunella, pleased.

Other dragons are bastards. I moved out of my mother's cave after my mother tried to rip my guts out.
Granted, I had tried to steal her Tiara of Clairvoyance.

A female may be poor or delicate or a spinster, but it does seem ill-advised of Miss Liddiard to combine all three.

I should advise you not to stop there, but set fire to his house, too, and sell his children to pirates. That is the only way he will learn

The tabloids wanted to know whether the dragon was receiving benefits. The gossip magazines claimed to have found a woman who was bearing the dragon's baby. The fashion magazines did spreads on draconian style. This apparently consisted of gaunt models with sunken eyes, swathed in clouds of chiffon and arranged in awkwardly erotic positions on piles of gold coins.