The Eagle and the Swan Quotes

“I’ll know my lord when I see him,” Theodora smiled broadly. “And I’ll tell him, ‘You haven’t seen anything yet’.”
― Carol Strickland, The Eagle and the Swan

“The former burlesque queen waited for the man who’d make her his true queen.”
― Carol Strickland, The Eagle and the Swan

“Doubtless Princess Juliana intended for me to overhear her comment on seeing Theodora in wedding regalia. “She’s like wisteria: beautiful in a vulgarly decorative way, cloyingly scented and an unstoppable climber.” Her eyes met mine and she made a motion as if scribbling in the air, daring me to write down her words.”
― Carol Strickland, The Eagle and the Swan

“Here’s her story, a tale of the bear-keeper’s daughter and the Empire: what happened to her and what happened because of her.”
― Carol Strickland, The Eagle and the Swan

“I want to be Empress.”
“Oh, Theodora, don’t be insane.” Antonina took her friend’s hands. “Do you really think a circus clown can become a queen?”
“There’s no fruit without a flower.”
“But an Empress? Maybe in a thousand years.”
“All I have is today.” She stiffened her backbone, like a fluttery leaf changing into an oak. “And I won’t be defeated by a failure of imagination.”
― Carol Strickland, The Eagle and the Swan

“Truth-telling is a delicate dance between exposure and imposture, a dance whose steps I’m beginning to learn. When Theodora found me in the scriptorium, I was twenty-one. Still young, but I’d seen enough to feel old.”
― Carol Strickland, The Eagle and the Swan