I intended to post some of my favorite quotes from the Man Booker Challenge books I read. And I'm already behind, so here goes.
Fire from Heaven, by Mary Renault
Alexander and a tutor discussing the proto-Olympic Games:
"No. When I went to watch, I thought nothing would be so wonderful. But we stayed on after, and I met the athletes; and I saw how it really is. I can beat the boys here, because we're all training to be men. But these boys are just boy athletes. Often they're finished before they're men; and if not, even for the men, the Games is all their life. Like being a woman is for women."
Epikrates nodded. "It came about almost within my lifetime. People who have earned no pride in themselves are content to be proud of their cities through other men. The end will be that the city has nothing left for pride, except the dead, who were proud less easily."
Hercules, to young Alexander in a vision:
By laying myself on the pyre I became divine. I have wrestled Thanatos (death) knee to knee, and I know how death is vanquished. Man's immortality is not to live forever; for that wish is born of fear. Each moment free from fear makes a man immortal.
Alexander and Hephaistion, at a turning point in their relationship:
Alexander rested from his thoughts in a waking sleep. Hephaistion watched him, with the steadfast eyes and tender patience of the leopard crouched by the pool, its hunger comforted by the sound of light distant footfalls, straying down the forest track.
At the assassination of Philip, Alexander's father, by the bodyguard Pausanias:
Philip slid stiffly down, smiled, and began to speak. Pausanias' left hand took his arm in a tightening drip. Their looks met. Pausanias brought out his right hand from his cloak, so swiftly that Philip never saw the dagger, except in Pausanias' eyes.
There are actually quite a few more, but they need more background to set up than I care to include here!
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