Nastasya Quotes

I can't help who I am," I pointed out. "i mean, do you think I should just hide?" I tapped one finger against my chin. "Gee, if only there was some place, some safe place, like in the middle of freaking nowhere, where I could surround myself with strong immortals and maybe learn how to protect myself and ... oh, wait!" I looked at Solis, my eyes wide with excitement. "Oh my God
that sounds like here! It sounds like I'm already actually doing exactly what you thing I should be doing! Awesome! ~ Cate Tiernan

I turned off the griddle and shoved the heavy platter at Ottavio. "Carry these in for me, willya, Ott? And the ones on top are for you."
[ ... ]
The pancakes on top had been shaped like a certain part of the male anatomy that seemed synonymous with Ottavio, to my way of thinking. ~ Cate Tiernan

Okay, welcome to Creepy Territory. Here's your map. ~ Cate Tiernan

What?" I wanted to climb him like a tree. ~ Cate Tiernan

Good Lord, if Incy could be helped ... then I was a freaking picnic. ~ Cate Tiernan

It was revolting that I had been like that. Shameful. Disgraceful, in the old-time sense of the word. And what was even worse? That I could now see myself so wretchedly clearly. I had changed, I recognized bitterly.I hated that I could see myself as I was. What a terrible thing to know. I would never be able to not know it, to forget it.I didn't see how I could ever forgive River for that. ~ Cate Tiernan

Is that a hat?" I asked, pouring eight rounds of batter into the griddle.
She grinned at me. "A sweater." She held it up
it was triangular, made of speckled brown and white mohair.
"For ... a Muppet?" I asked.
"For the naked chicken," she said, and snickered. ~ Cate Tiernan

Tracy looked at me with affectionate pity. "You feel alive. Regular people feel dead."
"I have new batteries in. ~ Cate Tiernan

The thing about Dostoevsky's characters is that they are alive. By which I don't just mean that they're successfully realized or developed or "rounded". The best of them live inside us, forever, once we've met them. Recall the proud and pathetic Raskolnikov, the naive Devushkin, the beautiful and damned Nastasya of The Idiot, the fawning Lebyedev and spiderish Ippolit of the same novel; C&P's ingenious maverick detective Porfiry Petrovich (without whom there would probably be no commercial crime fiction w/ eccentrically brilliant cops); Marmeladov, the hideous and pitiful sot; or the vain and noble roulette addict Aleksey Ivanovich of The Gambler; the gold-hearted prostitutes Sonya and Liza; the cynically innocent Aglaia; or the unbelievably repellent Smerdyakov, that living engine of slimy resentment in whom I personally see parts of myself I can barely stand to look at; or the idealized and all too-human Myshkin and Alyosha, the doomed human Christ and triumphant child-pilgrim, respectively. These and so many other FMD creatures are alive-retain what Frank calls their "immense vitality"-not because they're just skillfully drawn types or facets of human beings but because, acting withing plausible and morally compelling plots, they dramatize the profoundest parts of all humans, the parts most conflicted, most serious-the ones with the most at stake. Plus, without ever ceasing to be 3-D individuals, Dostoevsky's characters manage to embody whole ideologies and philosophie ~ David Foster Wallace

Yes, word had gotten around about my amusing little defeathering trick (note: made the chicken naked). Apparently we couldn't just eat the poor thing and be done with it. Apparently we had to knit cunning lil' sweaters for it so it could squawk around the yard, feeling fancy. ~ Cate Tiernan

Actually, now that I thought about it, I couldn't place when our "bests" had been. When had either one of us been at our best? Hmm. There might be a message here somewhere. I'll let you know if I find it. ~ Cate Tiernan

Did I know any useful spells? Why no, I sure didn't. But go on, ask me the Latin name of, like, foxglove. Digitalis purpurea. You're welcome. ~ Cate Tiernan

Let's here it for modern dentistry, eh? I said, and he grimaced. Actually, as much as people dislike going to the dentist now, try doing it two hundred years ago, when having a cavity meant some quack knocking it out with a chisel and a hammer in the market square. With no anesthetic. ~ Cate Tiernan