The Falconer Quotes

Do you understand what's going on here?"
Hodgesaargh took another slow look at the scene. "No," he said.
"In that case's not my job to understand this sort of thing," said the falconer. "I wasn't trained. Probably takes a lot of training, understanding this. That's your job. And her job. Can you understand what's going on when a bird's been trained and'll make a kill and still came back to the wrist?"
"Well, no - "
"There you are, then. So that's all right. Cup of tea, was it? ~ Terry Pratchett

The falcon cannot hear the falconer ~ William Butler Yeats

Well," I say brightly, "we're getting on splendidly, aren't we? Glad to see you're all becoming friends over your mutually violent desires. ~ Elizabeth May

There are two exits out of this room. Choose one."
Derrick chuckles. "What a glorious comeuppance. ~ Elizabeth May

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
The Second Coming ~ Wb Yeats

I was twelve. You were girls, and therefore an entirely different species. ~ Elizabeth May

You know my mother thinks the waltz is indecent."

"Your mother would find the sight of a chair leg indecent. ~ Elizabeth May

Kiaran's kiss is fierce, his breathing ragged. 'Have I ever told you the vow a sìthiche makes when he pledges himself to another?' He slides his fingers down my neck and his lips are so soft against mine that I barely feel them. 'Aoram dhuit,' he breathes. 'I will worship thee. ~ Elizabeth May

A corpse was merely an empty vessel for the spirit it had housed. "The soul," he'd said one night by a campfire in the Valley of the Kings, "is like a falcon. Despite its loyalty to the falconer, it longs to fly free. When my time comes, let my soul soar into the wind and the sky. Wherever its natural home is meant to be, that's where it will go. ~ Robert Masello

Well," Gavin drawls, "at least now I know what to do if that ever happens. I'll throw a jar of honey and run like hell. ~ Elizabeth May

I've changed my mind. Stop inadequately playing human," I say. "Drop her hand and step away. Take a very big step. ~ Elizabeth May

Trained hawks have a peculiar ability to conjure history because they are in a sense immortal. While individual hawks of different species die, the species themselves remain unchanged. There are no breed or varieties, because hawks were never domesticated. The birds we fly today are identical to those of five thousand years ago. Civilisations rise and fall, but hawks stay the same. This gives falconry birds the ability to feel like relics from the distant past. You take a hawk onto your fist. You imagine the falconer of the past doing the same. It is hard not to feel it is the same hawk. ~ Helen Macdonald

My ears are bleeding. I have a nasty headache. I'm trapped in a room with a murderous faery and I blame you."

"That's fair. ~ Elizabeth May

My cheeks are hot when he stalks right up to me, eyes narrowed. Pinched between his bloody fingers is a piece of scrap metal laced with seilgflùr from the blunderbuss - a shot that would have killed any other faery.

"Really?" he says.

"You were traipsing around in a low-visibility field while enemy fae are afoot," I say defensively, hoping he can't tell I'm blushing. "What is wrong with you?"

Aithinne snickers and Kiaran casts her a sharp glance. "It's not funny."

His sister tries to hold back a laugh, but doesn't quite succeed. "I'm sorry," she says. "But you just . . . I've never seen you look like such a complete mess."

Kiaran studies her with a narrowed gaze. "And both of you look like you've gone three rounds with a roving band of feral cats. I'd say we're even."

"Even? Oh, please." Aithinne ticks off each finger. "Thus far the Falconer and I escaped through a forest of spiked trees, fought off the mara, fled from Lonnrach's soldiers, and defeated two mortair. You were shot by accident with some weapon composed of a wooden stick with a barrel on the end - "

"A blunderbuss," I correct helpfully. Kiaran gives me a pointed look that says, Whose side are you on?

" - so I'd say I win this round." She finishes with the sort of arrogant grin that makes it very clear that this must be an ongoing competition.

Sibling rivalry, it seems, is not just for humans.
If Kiaran's glare ~ Elizabeth May

Perhaps it's a honey-ache. That's the result of eating too much of what isn't yours."

"But your friend offered it. So she might not have explicitly said, 'Derrick, please eat all of the honey in my kitchen,' but it was implied by the mere fact that she has a kitchen. ~ Elizabeth May

Oh deep winter snow, pale executioner, thou who delights in a slow, torturous death. ~ T.R. Neff

Of whatsoever number a fleet of ships of war is composed, it is usually divided into three squadrons; and these, if numerous, are again separated into divisions. ~ William Falconer

Only five books tonight, Mommy," she says.
No, Olivia, just one."
How about four?"
Two."
Three."
Oh, all right, three. But that's it! ~ Ian Falconer

Never step on caterpillars, as one day they'll become butterflies, and you'll never know when you'll need a ride on their wings of fortune. ~ R.P. Falconer

[W]hen you find yourself face to face with one [Bondsmage], you bow and scrape and mind your 'sirs' and 'madams.'
...
'Nice bird, asshole,' said Locke. ~ Scott Lynch

My dad wrote to me. My mum put him up to it because she got this great idea that hearing from someone I'd never met and who didn't give a fuck about me might cheer me up... ~ Helen Falconer

Reading never wears me out. ~ Ian Falconer

War is like any other bad relationship. Of course you want out, but at what price? And perhaps more importantly, once you get out, will you be any better off?
- Quellcrist Falconer ~ Richard K. Morgan

Wherever he looked, he saw people who demanded to be heard but had nothing to say. ~ Craig A. Falconer

They say women can fake an orgasm, but men can fake a whole relationship. ~ Colin Falconer

I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light. ~ Ion Keith-Falconer