“Hundreds of years have passed since his resounding victory. But beware, fair desert folk, for peace is a fragile promise. If you ever come into the desert and hear a voice from your memory offering you your greatest desires, turn away from it. That path is filled with broken and deadly lies.” StoriesDesirePromiseTalesDesertVoicesDeadly Book:The Stardust Thief Source: The Stardust Thief
“Mazen knew how powerful stories were. It had been stories that had swayed the sultan's heart after the wife killings and, only recently, stories that had painted Mazen as the murderer who had stolen his father's life. But down here, Mazen was not yet shackled to that lie. Down here, the narrative was still his to control.” StoriesPowerLiesNarrativeControlTruths Book:The Ashfire King Source: The Ashfire King
“You would be surprised by how many lies I have been told about my own kind. Jinn are like humans that way, so steeped in their own biases they believe the lies they speak.” StoriesTruthLiesMythBias Book:The Ashfire King Source: The Ashfire King
“Once, when Mazen had been a child, he'd asked his mother if the stories she told were truth or fiction. Many years later, he still remembered her answer. "Every story is a memory," she had once said. "A tale that happened neither here nor there, but in another time and place. Our job as storytellers is to describe that reality as we understand it. It is the listen who must determine what is and is not." He remembered the way her voice had fallen to a whisper as she spoke, as if she were sharing some precious secret with him. "Remember, Mazen, there is no such thing as a single truth. There are just the stories we tell others, and the ones we tell ourselves.” StoriesRealityTruthUnderstandingFiction Book:The Ashfire King Source: The Ashfire King
“I think the war between humans and jinn never ended. Humans blame the jinn for the barrenness of the land, and the jinn blame humans for their sunken cities. I think both of our worlds are dying, in different ways, because they are divided. In the absence of the truth, people make up their own stories. That is why there is so much hatred. That is why, even now, jinn blood paints the human desert and ifrit like Nabila pray for war. You know as well as I that there are people who do not believe in those stories - people who are caught in the middle that only wish for peace. But when we think about war, we forget about those people. We forget that there might be an alternative to violence.” WarStoriesPeaceInnocentMisunderstandingDivide Book:The Ashfire King Source: The Ashfire King