Quotes from Bernard Cornwell

The other thing I like about our gods is that they are not obsessed with us. They have their own squabbles and love affairs and seem to ignore us much of the time, but the Christian god has nothing better to do than to make rules for us.

Nimue paused a long time. I think she sensed the truth of Britain before any of us, before even Merlin and certainly long before Arthur

Bem, graças a Deus eu não sei o que é perder uma batalha, mas certamente nada pode ser mais doloroso do que ganhar uma com a perda de tantos amigos.

Because fate cannot be cheated, it governs us, and we are all its slaves.

He died without cutting his nails," she said accusingly, as if I was responsible for that ill luck, and it was bad fortune indeed because now the grim things of the underworld would use Ivar's nails to build the ship that would bring chaos at the world's end.

What are our intentions, sir?" "Our intentions, Milton? Our intentions are victory, fame, glory, peace, forgiveness of our enemies, reconciliation, magnanimity, prosperity, happiness, and the assured promise of heaven's reward." "Then might I suggest, sir," Cogswell said, trying to sober the ebullient Senator, "that we advance and occupy that stand of trees?

There was an air of enjoyment about Arthur, something in his face radiated a happiness that embraced you in its aura. I noticed then, and ever after, how men and women became more cheerful when Arthur was in their company.

I ran with him and suddenly I was released from fear as the mad, God-given joy of battle came to me for the very first time. Later, much later, I learned that the joy and the fear are the exact same things, the one merely transformed into the other by action, but on that summer afternoon I was suddenly elated. May God and His angels forgive me, but that day I discovered the joy that lies in battle and for a long time afterwards I craved it like a thirsty man seeking water.

Words are like breath," she said. "You say them and they're gone. But writing traps them. You could write down stories, poems.

Era a mulher mais inteligente que já conheci, mas mesmo naquela época, quando praticamente não passava de uma criança, era cheia de uma tristeza nascida dessa inteligência. Sabia demais.

a fool and his money are easily parted.

Descobri em minha longa vida que a maioria dos homens da Igreja prega os méritos da pobreza enquanto corre atrás da riqueza. Adoram dinheiro, e a Igreja atrai dinheiro como uma vela atrai mariposas.

The country's got drunk on God since then, and it don't make for happiness

Then you start another book and suddenly the galley proofs of the last one come in and you have to wrench your attention away from what you're writing and try to remember what you were thinking when you wrote the previous one.

And yes, there's a simplicity to writing books because you're not a member of a team, so you make all the decisions yourself instead of deferring to a committee.

I'll happily mentor anyone who wants mentoring, and most of that goes on by internet rather than face to face.

Agents will read unpublished work because they might make money, and that's their job. It isn't mine.

I know nothing about producing TV drama and any involvement on my part is liable to prove an obstacle to the producers, so I prefer to be a cheerleader and let them get on with it.

I decided to start a war, father", I said, cheerfully, "it's so much more interesting than peace.

You won't regret the men you never killed, but you will regret the women you passed up.

One book at a time... though I'm usually doing the research for others while I'm writing, but that sort of research is fairly desultory and I like to stick to the book being written - and writing a book concentrates the mind so the research is more productive.

So the books have a greater appeal to a British audience, but that hasn't stopped them making best-seller lists in places like Brazil, Japan and at least a dozen other countries.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the first book had not sold... doesn't bear thinking about, but I suppose we'd have made it work somehow.