# Quote — John Gardner, Grendel

> His voice, though powerful, was mild. Voice of a dead thing, calm as dry sticks and ice when the wind blows over them. He had a strange face that, little by litte, grew unsettling to me: it was a face, or so it seemed for an instant, from a dream I had almost forgotten. The eyes slanted downward, never blinking, unfeeling as a snake's. He had no more beard than a fish. He smiled as he spoke, but it was as if the gentle voice, the childlike yet faintly ironic smile were holding something back, some magician-power that could blast stone cliffs to ashes as lighting blasts trees.

- Author: [John Gardner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner.md)
- Book: [Grendel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner/grendel.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Grendel#Chapter_Eleven) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner/grendel/his-voice-though

## More from this book

> "Poor Grendel's had an accident," I whisper. ''"So may you all."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner/grendel/poor-grendels-had.md)

> Grendel, Grendel! You make the world by whispers, second by second. Are you blind to that? Whether you make it a grave or garden of roses is not the point. Feel the wall: is it not hard? He smashes me against it. Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now, sing of walls! Sing!

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner/grendel/grendel-grendel-you.md)

> Terrible, he whispers. Terrible. He laughs and lets out fire.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-gardner/grendel/terrible-he-whispers.md)