Aristoi Quotes

“I hate it!" he said. "I don't want to be human anymore."
"Neither do I," she said. "It's not a good place to be.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“Terror skittered around the fringes of his consciousness on fast rodent feet.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“He put the point of the knife against what he thought was the cricothyroid membrane, steadied it with the right hand, then slammed the butt with his left palm.

Pain shrieked through him as the knife went in. Blood spurted over his hands. He hoped he hadn't hit the carotid artery--local variation in the throat was considerable, and blood vessels were tricky.

He still couldn't breath. Panic flailed in him and he slapped the butt of the knife again, as hard as he could.

He felt the point strike the back of his throat, gagged, felt more pain. He took a grip on the grainy plastic handle of the knife and twisted, felt cartilage grind as he forced it apart--

--and he breathed. Blood spattered as the long, full breath whistled out. He gurgled as he breathed in.

[...]

When he felt ready he got to his feet. He found a fork and jabbed the tines into his incision, then twisted to keep it open. His lungs kept going into spasm in an attempt to cough the obstruction out.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“Gabriel knew that he had let himself in for a certain amount of ridicule when he decided to allow himself to be worshiped. In the end he decided that the precedent of actually forbidding a religion was more distasteful than being plagued by the devout.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“Gabriel flashed him the one-fingered Mudra of Contempt.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“Why do I feel that ghosts are more real
Than these creatures of substance and matter?
Why does their song seem to drive me along
More than humanity’s drivel and pratter?”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“Without knowledge you cannot choose wisely. And without wise choice, there is no freedom.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“Propelled by violas and stinging electric guitar, presto followed andante, and so to finale.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“When the work was done Gabriel would compose music for the bone trumpet, a lament for Vissarion played on an instrument made from Vissarion's femur. Vissarion would be pleased, he thought, that his remains had become music, leaping into life like Athene from the thigh of Zeus.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

“To Persepolis the dream, came Gabriel. Demons buzzed insistently in his head but he kept them on a short leash. For Persepolis was a place where demons as well as dreams were shared.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi