# Karen Lord

Karen Lord (born 22 May 1968) is a Barbadian writer of speculative fiction.

## Quotes
### Redemption in Indigo (2010)

    All page numbers are from the trade paperback first edition published by Small Beer Press, ISBN 978-193152066-9
    Nominated for the 2011 World Fantasy Award
* His mother had been the daughter of a minor chief, and she had carefully instilled in Ansige an understanding of the importance of importance.
** Chapter 1 “Ansige is Delayed on the Road to Makendha” (p. 8)
* Ansige’s outer appearance could be deceptive, but, given enough time, he let everyone know who and what he was.
** Chapter 1 “Ansige is Delayed on the Road to Makendha” (p. 10)
* Ansige unreeled the tale of his tribulations, thoroughly ransacking the truth and then dipping into the bag of embellishment and sprinkling with a free hand.
** Chapter 2 “Ansige Eats Lamb and Murders a Peacock” (p. 17)
* Chaos was a far subtler force than most people realised. It would be so easy to sense if it threw off thunderbolts or sent barely sensed thrummings through the fabric of reality, but it was nothing more than the possible made probable. It did not break or bend any laws of nature or tip the balance of the universe.
** Chapter 8 “The Indigo Lord Spies on the Citizens of Makendha” (p. 64)
* That was the nature of chaos; its effects spanned time in ways that were not always immediately discernible, not even by beings outside of time.
** Chapter 9 “A Stranger is Coming to Makendha” (p. 69)
* Besides, for poets it wasn’t lying, it was art.
** Chapter 9 “A Stranger is Coming to Makendha” (p. 72)
* Women fell into that category of fantasies and dreams that worked well when unfulfilled but presented all kinds of problems when brought out into the real world of trial and failure.
** Chapter 10 “Paama Among the Sisters, and Alton the Poet Finds His Muse” (p. 82)
* Paama sat up slowly, moving as cautiously as if facing a lion who had just declared his intention not to pounce, but to have a friendly chat instead.
** Chapter 15 “A Lesson on Chances and Choices” (p. 114)
* “Never?” he said, dismayed. “Never,” she reiterated firmly. He nodded, pretending to be resigned, but secretly he thought that there were always ways to get around “never.”
** Chapter 17 “The Sisters in Charge, and the Trickster in Trouble” (p. 134)
* It was a common characteristic among the warriors—no fear of death, and only pride for their scars, but little thought of all that could happen in between those two extremes.
** Chapter 18 “A Spider in His Parlour and a Very Eager Fly” (p. 136)
* Let me tell you, I have seen men who are trying to find themselves, and I have seen men who are trying to lose themselves, but rare indeed is the man who knows exactly who he is and where he is at.
** Chapter 18 “A Spider in His Parlour and a Very Eager Fly” (p. 139)
* Getting information out of them was like extracting gold from ore—a lot of labour and time, and why bother to do it when you know there’s a store just around the corner?
** Chapter 23 “One Door Closes...” (p. 174)

### The Best of All Possible Worlds (2013)

    All page numbers are from the hardcover first edition published by Del Rey, ISBN 978-0-345-53406-4, first printing
    The chapters are not numbered in the book; they are numbered here for ease of reference
    Italics as in the book
* And stop thinking you’re the superior ones! You’re just another drop in our gene pool! We’re all descended from peoples who thought they were kings and gods and who found themselves to be almost nothing at all in the end. Don’t let that be you.
** Chapter 2, “The Best of All Possible Worlds” (p. 22)
* One of the advantages of having languages as a hobby is that it can take you quite a while to run out of swear words.
** Chapter 3, “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” (p. 27)
* The ability to know another’s mind does not preclude the likelihood of misunderstanding it.
** Chapter 3, “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” (p. 34; repeated on p. 70)
* Blood is blood, you know? There’s too much shared history and too many cross-connecting bonds to ever totally extract yourself from that half-smothering, half-supporting, muddled net called family.
** Chapter 5, “Happy Families” (p. 64)
* I don’t want easy. I want true.
** Chapter 7, “Never Forget” (p. 115)
* “Ever wonder if you’ve done the right thing?” I asked him finally. “Frequently,” he replied. “Legalities notwithstanding, to not wonder indicates a dangerous lack of awareness of the nearly infinite array of choices presented by life.”
** Chapter 10, “The Master’s House” (p. 176)
* What you describe as the product of a mental imbalance, I would classify as swift, intuitive thinking to arrive at creative solutions.
** Chapter 14, “The Last Assignment” (p. 249)

## External links

* Official website
* Karen Lord at Tumblr
* Karen Lord at Small Beer Press
* Karen Lord at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* Dual Reality: Excerpts from an interview in Locus Magazine (August 2011)
* "Joint Review: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord", The Book Smugglers (2013)
* "Always a New World: A Conversation with Karen Lord", Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 77 (February 2013)
* "Conversations with Richard Fidler", featuring Karen Lord), Radio interview, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* "Karen Lord: Interview with Gavin Grant" BookPage (2013)
* The Spaces Between the Words: Conversations with Writers (a podcast series affiliated with the Literatures in English section at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus and The Caribbean Review of Books)
* Nalo Hopkinson and Karen Lord in Conversation
* Podcast Interview on Bibliophile Stalker (with Charles Tan)
* Interview with Chesya Burke at the World SF Blog
* In conversation with Karen Burnham (Locus Roundtable Podcast)