Tanith Lee

I will draw you back to me. You shall see. By a chain of stars.

— Tanith Lee

Flat or round, there has always been hate in the world.

— Tanith Lee

“and their days make no story for they were good and joyful and without event”

— Tanith Lee

Genre categories are irrelevant. I dislike them, but I do not have the casting vote.

— Tanith Lee

“You should visit before you pass judgement on a place.”

— Tanith Lee

I like films, or some films, and would be intrigued to see my work on screen.

— Tanith Lee

“Live and let love. Love and let go. Go live.”

— Tanith Lee

I came up with a parallel Venice called Venus. set in a parallel Venice about 1701.

— Tanith Lee

Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but everyone has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.

— Tanith Lee

It gets cold in the desert at night, particularly up in the mountains; the stars hammer on the rock and strike frost.

— Tanith Lee

“Louisa beheld the grounds and house with the calm pleasure of one who has seen nothing, been nowhere, expects everything, and has…

— Tanith Lee

The dictate of the light says: Know yourself and what you are. The dark replies, By all means, but then become afraid.

— Tanith Lee

I'm writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing.…

— Tanith Lee

If you run away from trouble, it always follows.' Rather my impression, too. Though that never stopped me trying.

— Tanith Lee

Men are not the causers of history. History itself, by a pressure of events, causes men to resort to particular actions.

— Tanith Lee

I tend not to analyse my work, though I'm frequently intrigued when other people take time to do so.

— Tanith Lee

I was reading some complex books in my own youth-and no, I didnt always understand every word, let alone every concept-but I…

— Tanith Lee

World's flying like birds; my car's in flight. The city lights are spattered on my windshield like the fragments of the night.…

— Tanith Lee

I hate the way, once you start to know someone, care about them, their behavior can distress you, even when it's unreasonable…

— Tanith Lee

“Everything now had been taken from him, his striving after goodness, his hopes, his pride, even that human revenge upon fate--to destroy…

— Tanith Lee

We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests. And that's where I put myself: as a storyteller. Not…

— Tanith Lee

I held out my book. It was precious to me, as were all the things I'd written; even where I despised their…

— Tanith Lee

At an early school, when I was about 5, they asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Everyone said…

— Tanith Lee

“It was usual to be obedient to authority, to obey a legal letter. But Rachaela left her bills unpaid until the threats…

— Tanith Lee

“...and once he folded his inky wings on the roof of a temple and laughed aloud at men's notions of the gods.”

— Tanith Lee

The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis.

— Tanith Lee

Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.

— Tanith Lee

He sat by her, watching every gesture she made, as if he would paint her portrait afterward.

— Tanith Lee

I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault.

— Tanith Lee

As a child, my mother told me lots of fairy stories, many her own invention. She, too, tended to reverse the norm.

— Tanith Lee

Danger and anger are everywhere. Love is the rarity, the gem buried in the core of the mine, the outpost of God.

— Tanith Lee

She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an…

— Tanith Lee

People are always the start for me... animals, when I can get into their heads, gods, supernatural beings, immortals, the dead... these…

— Tanith Lee

“It was the forest’s fault. Those two handsome woodcutters. An evil place, the forest, everyone knew it, full of temptations and imps...”

— Tanith Lee

Robespierre, crippled and blind, has yet to be healed to the knowledge that service - his desire - is a deed of…

— Tanith Lee

“The guilty are always the most prone to establish complementary guilt, and the most unforgiving thereafter.”

— Tanith Lee

“Tanaquil gently toed the peeve. "I'll unfasten the window. Jump out to the lower roof and run." "Stay and bite," said the…

— Tanith Lee

The humble were the elect of God. Did not the priests teach so, in their gemmed, kingly robes, from their towering pulpits?

— Tanith Lee

“This sight was terrible, more terrible than words can convey, for words are cowards as men are, and hide things as men…

— Tanith Lee

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape…

— Tanith Lee