1. "I should have known something was wrong when my advisor’s parting words were Good luck. To his credit, he had—very gently—suggested that I might want to consider a different sort of topic. But I didn’t want to consider another topic. I was madly in love with my topic: Aristocratic Espionage during the Wars with France, 1789- 1815. It had dash, it had swash, it had buckle."
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Lauren Willig, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
2. "And so,' smiled the Witcher, 'I have no choice? I have to enter into a pact with you, a pact which should someday become the subject of a painting, and become a sorcerer? Give me a break. I know a little about the theory of heredity. My father, as I discovered with no little difficulty, was a wanderer, a churl, a troublemaker and a swashbuckler. My genes on the spear side may be dominant over the genes on the distaff side. The fact that I can swash a buckler pretty well seems to confirm that."
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Andrzej Sapkowski, Czas pogardy
3. ". Tendrils of her joy and possession steal to them, and the man runs across the gap calling, "Tihe mauriora!" and Kerewin laughs and holds him and hongis. And the child runs into them both, literally, blind in his need to be with them. She picks him up, and holds him one-handed on her hip. "Tihe mauriora to you too, urchin." One arm still round Joe's shoulders: they are knit together by her arms. She can feel their heart beats echo and shake through her. She says softly, but clearly above the thunder and swash of the sea, "Welcome to my real home. For now it is your home too."
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Keri Hulme, The Bone People