75 quotes
“This fruit syrup stuff is no good for smoking; it’s only fit for impressing ignorant girls.”
Tyler shrugged, as if to say that that was reason enough to smoke it right there.
The Skies Discrowned (1976)
The church has become a more...exclusive club since the founder’s day, it’s clear. No doubt the Devil is more hospitable.
The Stress of Her Regard (1989)
“My wife was a psychiatrist,” remarked Pete, “before she became a bruja.”
Earthquake Weather (1997)
It’s important to feel good about yourself. This morning I met somebody I really like—me.
Expiration Date (1995)
“We’re going to have a séance. Oren, open the whisky, if you would, and pour each of us a full glass.”
“First sensible remark all night,” said Charlotte.
Three Days to Never (2006)
“When did you…die?”
“I don’t know. Sometime besides now.”
Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers (2017)
He was dizzy, and it occurred to him that Newton must have been right when he’d said that light consisted of particles, for today he could feel them hitting him.
The Stress of Her Regard (1989)
Finehouse relaxed in his own seat. They had all certainly failed.
But maybe sometimes, he thought, it’s a good thing, on the whole, to have closed a knife that someone else had opened.
Stolen Skies (2022)
Sukie had always said that the Alice books were the Old and New Testaments for ghosts—which Pete had never understood; after all, Lewis Carroll hadn’t been dead yet when he’d written them.
Expiration Date (1995)
“Did he say who he was?” asked Scott.
“I asked him,” said Ariel. “He sort of laughed and said he was between names.”
Medusa's Web (2016)
When my mother told me the meek would inherit the earth, I told her all I wanted of it was the shovelful that would cover my cold face.
Medusa's Web (2016)
He always had to use holy water—real holy water, from gallon jugs he filled from the silver urn at St. Anne’s—but though it impressed the customers, all he could see that it actually did was get stuff wet.
Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers (2017)
He tried to put more conviction into his voice than he felt, and he mentally cursed any God that there might be, for having made this coming ordeal not only tremendously difficult and dangerous, but possibly pointless too.
The Stress of Her Regard (1989)
Terracotta says people can’t help what they do, any more than a rock rolling down a hill can. The rock might think it has a choice about rolling left or right, just like people think they choose what they do, but really it’s all just physics.
Alternate Routes (2018)
You protect the ones you love. He clung to the thought. Even if they ignorantly resent you for it.
Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers (2017)
He felt as if someone far away below in the darkness was chipping away at the pillars of his mind, and the steady crack...crack...crack of it was the only sound in the universe.
The Drawing of the Dark (1979)
You’re still Brian Duffy. As much as you ever were. But you’re Arthur, too, and that kind of outshines everything else. Brandy and water tastes more like brandy than water, after all.
The Drawing of the Dark (1979)
She’s probably only now beginning to be able to think for herself, he thought. And she’ll be hating it. Will she acknowledge the responsibilities that she can now clearly see, or will they be so appalling that she’ll just want to return to the selfless haze?
The Stress of Her Regard (1989)
“That’s me, that old guy, that old drunk guy! Who claimed he was my dad? Like, me from the future?”
“One future, not the future. There isn’t any the future.”
Three Days to Never (2006)
And everybody there thought we were! So who cares? So I care—you are what people think you are, which is why it’s so important to get them thinking you’re someone who...counts. Gaah.
Dinner at Deviant's Palace (1985)