Quotes from Paul S. Kemp

She stared up at Vader, unafraid."I hate you and everything you stand for" she said."But when I murdered, I murdered out of love" Vader raised his blade, his breathing loud and steady. When he spoke, his voice was as deep and hollow as a funeral gong. "I know precisely what you mean" he said and slashed.

A memory stabbed him, as sharp as a blade. He'd floated alone in an escape pod over Ryloth once, spinning high over its surface, after crashing a cruiser into a droid control ship. Another name bobbed up and broke the surface of the sea of memory. Ahsoka. He'd called her "Snips" sometimes. He pushed the errant recollection aside and focused on his task.

Yap, yap little dog.

An apprentice was unquestioningly loyal until the moment he wasn't. Both Master and apprentice knew this.

Once, as a Jedi, he had meditated to find peace. Now he meditated to sharpen the edges of his anger.

the scarred face of a clone, the features an echo of so many faces from Vader's past. Rex. Cody. Fives. Echo. The roster of names moved through Vader's mind, each of them a trigger for a memory, each of them a ghost from his past.

Vader completed his meditation and opened his eyes. His pale, flame-savaged face stared back at him from out of the reflective black transparisteel of his pressurized meditation chamber. Without the neural connection to his armor, he was conscious of the stumps of his legs, the ruin of his arms, the perpetual pain in his flesh. He welcomed it. Pain fed his hate, and hate fed his strength. Once, as a Jedi, he had meditated to find peace. Now he meditated to sharpen the edges of his anger.

Malgus knew it was folly. Empires and the men who ruled empires could not stay sharp when surrounded by comfort, by peace.

We are, all of us, always being tested

Underlings should always be uncomfortable in the presence of their superiors," said the Emperor. "Don't you agree?

If good people won't do the hard things, evil people will always win, because evil people will do anything.

The armor separated him from the galaxy, from everyone, made him singular, freed him from the needs of the flesh, the concerns of the body that once had plagued him, and allowed him to focus solely on his relationship to the Force.

Losing something she loved had ripped her open in a way she had not expected. The pain hurt, but the pain was right. The Order had wrought a galaxy in which good capitulated to evil, where human feelings—Aryn's feelings—were crushed under the weight of Jedi nonattachment.

Sometimes it's possible for a decision to be right and wrong at the same time

Small sparks can start big fires.

He'd said that the relationship between Sith apprentice and Master was symbiotic but in a delicate balance. An apprentice owed his Master loyalty. A Master owed his apprentice knowledge and must show only strength. But the obligations were reciprocal and contingent. Should either fail in his obligation, it was the duty of the other to destroy him. The Force required it. Since before the Clone Wars, Vader's Master had never shown anything but

The weak are found out and killed by the strong.

But sometimes the strong mistake their strength

The Jedi understand the Force only partially. Some of them are even powerful in its use. But they fail to comprehend the fundamental nature of the Force, that it is conflict. That a light side and a dark side exist is proof of this.

their fear fed his anger.

Fire surrounded them. Fire. Mustafar. Obi-Wan. He used his ever-present anger to burn away the memories, but the charred husks of the past clung to the forefront of his consciousness. Padmé.

The real world didn't well accommodate principles.

A thought flashed through Vader's mind, a stray thought, just for a moment: his Master dead, Vader ruling the Empire, the galaxy, unconstrained by the leash of an old man…

We are, all of us, always being tested, my friend. Tests make us stronger, and strength is power, and power is the point. We must pass all the tests we face… Or die in the effort.