Wylan Van Eck Quotes

Pick up the pace," Kaz said, eyeing his watch.
"If I spill a single drop of this, it will burn straight through the floor onto my father's dinner guests."
"Take your time. ~ Leigh Bardugo

As he lay there, he sought some explanation for what had happened. Surely, Miggson and Prior were to blame; his father hadn't known. [...] As soon as he drew out the thick envelope, he knew his father was guilty. [...] His father hadn't even bothered with a convincing ruse. He'd known Wylan wouldn't try to read the papers. And that his gullible son would never think to suspect his father of lying. Pathetic. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I guess we need to find a way to the quarry?" Jesper said.
Wylan coughed. "No we don't, just a general store."
"But you told Kaz the mineral - "
"It's present in all kinds of paints and enamels. I wanted to make sure I had a reason to go to Olendaal."
"Wylan Van Eck, you lied to Kaz Brekker." Jesper clutched a hand to his chest. "And you got away with it! Do you give lessons?"
Wylan felt ridiculously pleased - until he thought about Kaz finding out. Then he felt a little like the first time he'd tried brandy and ended up spewing his dinner all over his own shoes. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Let's let the Ice Court know the Dregs have come to call. ~ Leigh Bardugo

My father used to take me everywhere with him."
"Until?"
"Until what?"
"Until. My father took me everywhere until I contracted terrible seasickness, until I vomited at a royal wedding, until I tried to hump the ambassador's leg."
"The leg was asking for it. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Pull your shirt up over your mouth," he told Wylan.
"What?"
"Stop being dense. You're cuter when you're smart."
Wylan's cheeks went pink. He scowled and pulled his collar up. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Until this moment, Wylan hadn't quite understood how much they meant to him. His father would have sneered at these thugs and thieves, a disgraced soldier, a gambler who couldn't keep out of the red. But they were his first friends, his only friends, and Wylan knew that even if he'd had his pick of a thousand companions, these would have been the people he chose. ~ Leigh Bardugo

In the space of a breath, Kaz had shoved Wylan against the tomb wall with his forearm, the crow head of his cane wedged beneath Wylan's jaw. "Tell me my business again." Wylan swallowed, parted his lips. "Do it," said Kaz. "And I'll cut the tongue from your head and feed it to the first stray cat I can find. ~ Leigh Bardugo

If this was the plan, what was the point to trying to smuggle in those lockpicks?" Wylan asked.

Kaz folded his arms. "Ever hear about the dying man whose medik told him he'd been miraculously cured? He danced into the street and was trampled to death by a horse. You have to let the mark feel like he's won. Were the guards studying Matthias and wondering if he looked familiar? Were they looking for trouble when Jesper went into the showers with paraffin sloughing off his arms? No, they were too busy congratulating themselves on catching me. They thought they'd neutralized the threat. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Jesper gave his shoulder another little shake. "Well, how about this? Kaz is going to tear your father's damn life apart."
Wylan was about to say that didn't help either, but he hesitated. Kaz Brekker was the most brutal, vengeful creature Wylan had ever encountered--and he'd sworn he was going to destroy Jan Van Eck. The thought felt like cool water cascading over the hot, shameful feeling of helplessness he'd been carrying with him for so long. Nothing could make this right, ever. But Kaz could make his father's life very wrong. ~ Leigh Bardugo

It was a calculated risk."
"It was cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best. Believe me, I know the difference. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Does this bother you, merchling?"
"I don't enjoy feeling like a thief."
"After everything he's done?"
"Yes."
"So much for righteous. You do realize we're stealing your money?"
"Jesper said the same thing, but I'm sure my father wrote me out of his will as soon as Alys became pregnant."
"That doesn't mean you're any less entitled to it."
"I don't want it. I just don't want him to have it."
"What a luxury to turn your back on luxury. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Where do think the money went?" he repeated.
"Guns?" asked Jesper.
"Ships?" queried Inej.
"Bombs?" suggested Wylan.
"Political bribes?" offered Nina. They all looked at Matthias. "This is where you tell us how awful we are," she whispered.
He shrugged. "They all seem like practical choices. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Why do you guys say that, anyway? No mourners, no funerals? Why not just say good luck or be safe?"
"We like to keep our expectations low. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Thoughts of moonlight and silken hair evaporated in a black bolt of fury. Kaz saw Inej tug on the sleeve of her left forearm, where the Menagerie tattoo had once been. He had the barest inkling of what she'd endured there, but he knew what it was to feel helpless, and Van Eck had managed to make her feel that way again. Kaz was going to have to find a new language of suffering to teach that smug merch son of a bitch. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Vile, ruthless, amoral. Isn't that why you hired Kaz in the first place? Because he does the things that no one else dares? Go on, Van Eck. Break my legs and see what happens. Dare him."
Had she really believed a merch could outthink Kaz Brekker? Kaz would get her free and then they'd show this man exactly what whores and canals rats could do. ~ Leigh Bardugo

She took a shaky breath. The words came like a string of gunshots, rapid-fire, as if she resented the very act of speaking them. "I didn't know if you would come."
Kaz couldn't blame Van Eck for that. Kaz had built that doubt in her with every cold word and small cruelty. "We're your crew, Inej. We don't leave our own at the mercy of merch scum."
It wasn't the answer he wanted to give. It wasn't the answer she wanted. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Alys Van Eck waddled along beside him. Her blindfold had been removed, and through his long glass, Matthias could see her lips moving. Sweet Djel, is she still singing? Judging from the sour expression on Kaz's face, it was a distinct possibility. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Our hopes rest with you, Mister Brekker. If you fail, all the world will suffer for it."
"Oh, it's worse than that, Van Eck. If I fail, I don't get paid."
The look of disgust on the merch's face was something that deserved its own DeKappel oil to commemorate it.
"Don't look so disappointed. Just think how miserable you would have been to discover this canal rat had a patriotic streak. You might actually have had to uncurl that lip and treat me with something closer to respect."
"Thank you for sparing me that discomfort ~ Leigh Bardugo

Go on, Van Eck, threaten me. Tell me all the little things I am. You lay a finger on me and Kaz Brekker will cut the baby from your pretty wife's stomach and hang its body from a balcony at the Exchange. ~ Leigh Bardugo

What makes you think we can do this? There will be other teams out there, trained soldiers and spies, people with years of experience."
"This isn't a job for trained soldiers and spies. It's a job for thugs and thieves. Van Eck knows it, and that's why he brought us in. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Do you want to beat Van Eck?" Kaz asked.

Nina blew out an exasperated breath. "Of course."

Kaz's eyes scanned the room, moving from face to face. "Do you? Do you want your money? The money we fought, and bled, and nearly drowned for? Or do you want Van Eck to be glad he picked a bunch of nobodies from the Barrel to scam? Because no one else is going to get him for us. No one else is going to care that he cheated us or that we risked our lives for nothing. No one else is going to make this right. So I'm asking, do you want to beat Van Eck?"

"Yes," said Inej. She wanted some kind of justice.

"Soundly," said Nina.

"Around the ears with Wylan's flute," said Jesper.

One by one, they nodded. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Wylan - and the obliging Kuwei - will get the weevil working," Kaz continued. "Once we have Inej, we can move on Van Eck's silos."

Nina rolled her eyes. "Good thing this is all about getting our money and not about saving Inej. Definitely not about that."

"If you don't care about money, Nina dear, call it by its other names."

"Kruge? Scrub? Kaz's one true love?"

"Freedom, security, retribution."

"You can't put a price on those things."

"No? I bet Jesper can. It's the price of the lien on his father's farm." The sharpshooter looked at the toes of his boots. "What about you, Wylan? Can you put a price on the chance to walk away from Ketterdam and live your own life? And Nina, I suspect you and your Fjerdan may want something more to subsist on than patriotism and longing glances. Inej might have a number in mind too. It's the price of a future, and it's Van Eck's turn to pay."

Matthias was not fooled. Kaz always spoke logic, but that didn't mean he always told truth. "The Wraith's life is worth more than that," said Matthias. "To all of us."

"We get Inej. We get our money. It's as simple as that."

"Simple as that," said Nina. "Did you know I'm next in line for the Fjerdan throne? They call me Princess Ilse of Engelsberg."

"There is no princess of Engelsberg," said Matthias. "It's a fishing town."

Nina shrugged. "If we're going to lie to ourselves, we might as ~ Leigh Bardugo

I like singing," said Alys.
Wylan shook his head frantically, mouthing, No, no, no.
"Shall I sing?" Alys asked hopefully. "Bajan says that I'm good enough to be on the stage."
"Maybe we save that for later - " suggested Jesper.
Alys' lower lip began to wobble like a plate about to break.
"Sing," Matthias blurted, "by all means, sing."
And then the real nightmare began.
It wasn't that Alys was so bad, she just never stopped. She sang between bites of food. She sang while she was walking through the graves. She sang from behind a bush when she needed to relieve herself. When she finally dozed off, she hummed in her sleep .
"Maybe this was Van Eck's plan all along," Kaz said glumly when they'd assembled outside the tomb again.
"To drive us mad?" said Nina. "It's working."
Jesper shut his eyes and groaned. "Diabolical. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Timing really is nearly everything. And what it isn't, circumstance makes up for. ~ Steven Van Zandt

Peace comes not by establishing a calm outward setting so much as by inwardly surrendering to whatever the setting. ~ Hubert Van Zeller

I did the Kilimanjaro climb a few years ago, then the six-day trek to Machu Picchu in Peru so this bike ride to raise money for Great Ormond Street seemed like the next big challenge. ~ Denise Van Outen

Half a century of digging among the ruins of the past had made me painfully familiar with the feet of clay which were buried deeply in the sands of time and which only too often supported the magnificent superstructure of some of the statues erected to our departed gods and half-gods. But, on the other hand, where would we have been - yes, where would we be today - unless occasionally there had been feet of granite, willing and able to carry their owners into the realm of the unknown and find new roads toward progress? The answer was - nowhere at all. We needed those voortrekkers, as our South African cousins used to call them. We needed a few stout hearts to do the pioneering. Without those men and women who trekked ahead of the rest of the crowd and either found new grazing fields or died in the attempt, no one of us would ever have gotten very far. We would have been obliged to stick to the swampy coastal regions, where we had lived and died until then, since the beginning of time, and we would never have known what lay hidden beyond the distant mountain ranges. ~ Hendrik Willem Van Loon

There are some movie stars in Hollywood that are so scared, they also tell the reporter that they are recording them, in case there is something wrong with what they wrote about them in the papers. ~ Jean-Claude Van Damme

I grew up on a lot of early Beatles, DC5, Cream, Clapton, Page, Beck and Hendrix. ~ Eddie Van Halen

He hated singing other people's songs. But he was singing some of my favorites ... ~ Rachel Van Dyken

Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children. That is simply good politics. he will not understand what you have to say about architecture most of the time. ~ Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

The real artist has no pride. Unfortunately he sees that his art has no limits. He feels obscurely how far he is from the goal.
While he is perhaps being admired by others, he mourns the fact that he has not yet reached the point to which his better genius, like a distant sun, ever beckons to him. ~ Ludwig Van Beethoven

For a moment, life isn't as hard as it seems. Effortless. It's effortless, and then the gauntlet falls. ~ Rachel Van Dyken

My reading has been lamentably desultory and immedthodical. Odd, out of the way, old English plays, and treatises, have supplied me with most of my notions, and ways of feeling. In everything that relates to science, I am a whole Encyclopaedia behind the rest of the world. I should have scarcely cut a figure among the franklins, or country gentlemen, in King John's days. I know less geography than a schoolboy of six weeks standing. To me a map of old Ortelius is as authentic as Arrowsmith. I do not know whereabout Africa merges into Asia, whether Ethiopia lie in one or other of those great divisions, nor can form the remotest, conjecture of the position of New South Wales, or Van Diemen's Land. Yet do I hold a correspondence with a very dear friend in the first named of these two Terrae Incognitae. I have no astronomy. I do not know where to look for the Bear or Charles' Wain, the place of any star, or the name of any of them at sight. I guess at Venus only by her brightness - and if the sun on some portentous morn were to make his first appearance in the west, I verily believe, that, while all the world were grasping in apprehension about me, I alone should stand unterrified, from sheer incuriosity and want of observation. Of history and chronology I possess some vague points, such as one cannot help picking up in the course of miscellaneous study, but I never deliberately sat down to a chronicle, even of my own country. I have most dim apprehensions of the four great monarc ~ Charles Lamb

I have this hope that there is a better way. Higher-level tools that actually let you see the structure of the software more clearly will be of tremendous value. ~ Guido Van Rossum

I began to paint again, even though I could barely hold the brush, but knowing exactly what I wanted to paint, I began three more large canvases ... of large wheat fields under cloudy skies, and it did not take a great deal to express sadness and loneliness ... I believe these paintings say what words cannot. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I was living in a large apartment with no furniture, just a typewriter, and because I had nothing else to do with my time, it made me take my writing seriously. ~ Simon Van Booy

As soon as something like Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian' appears with a Muhammad figure as the main lead, directed by an Arabic Theo van Gogh, the controversial late Dutch filmmaker, we will have taken an enormous step forward. ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Geology differs from physics, chemistry, and biology in that the possibilities for experiment are limited. ~ Reinout Willem Van Bemmelen

Nothing is sadder than having worldly standards without worldly means. ~ Van Wyck Brooks

Most people are more predetermined as to what is the human form and the human face than they are as to what are flowers, landscapes, still lifes. Not everybody. I remember one of the first exhibitions of Van Gogh, there was an American there and she said to her friend, I find these portraits of people quite interesting for I don't know what people are like but I don't at all like these flower pictures because I know very well what flowers are like.

Most people are not like that. I do not mean to say that they know people better than they know other things but they have stronger convictions about what people are than what other things are. ~ Gertrude Stein

But you're a monk! ~ Van Helsing

Imagine if Beethoven had a tape recorder. Then you'd know exactly what he meant. Maybe he meant 'Da da da da' instead of 'Boom boom boom boom!' Who knows? ~ Eddie Van Halen

The Shakers also have one golden rule – back to William Morris: Do not make that which is not useful. And so it was their interpretation that all useful things should also be beautiful. God, as architect Mies van der Rohe said, was in the details and, you never know, an angel may come one day and sit on that chair – it had to be worthy of such an event. ~ Alan Moore

The largest living land mammal is the absent mind. ~ Don Van Vliet