Quotes from Dave Duncan

Wealthy Venetian men provide little education for their daughters and keep their wives housebound - some don't get out more than two or three times a year. They have no friends, no recreations. Then the men wonder why their womenfolk are so dull. they patronize courtesans at least as much for entertainment as for sex, probably more.

se joignit à ses camarades masculins pour prendre un bain chaud et voluptueux qui détendit ses muscles, apaisa ses ampoules et transforma son épuisement douloureux en fatigue somnolente.

That is what grandchildren are for — so that the old may also dream, a promise of a future in return for the lost past.

Men are physically stronger than women, but they are rarely more ruthless or as effective at gathering information.

Ce monde reste primitif, Shonsu. Ne t'attends pas à des déductions salariales, à des assurances maladie et à des plans de retraite…

Jja s'inquiétait pour lui. Il n'avait pas essayé de lui expliquer tous ses ennuis, car elle n'aurait jamais pu les comprendre. Elle ne lui en voulait pas, il en était persuadé. Elle faisait de son mieux : elle offrait sa compassion silencieuse pour atténuer une douleur secrète, comme maintenant. Il savoura cette attention paisible pendant un moment. —

The bride seemed genuinely happy showing off her new husband, and her friends were too polite to ask if he was the best unemployed baboon she could find.

He had never lost his temper since his childhood except once — almost — in Durthing. That burst of fury had frightened him, but it had still not taught him what a jotunn rage could be. Now he felt it in its full adult form for the first time. It was wonderful, irresistible, intoxicating. He might regret this after, for as long as he might live, but now that did not

There will also be a number of other novels which were bequeathed in an unfinished state to Robert, who has taken on the daunting task of completing Dave's work, so there will be co-authored Dave Duncan novels.

if you can rid your life of realities by night and keep your days as one long dream always, then you will indeed be blessed of the Gods. Gath

In my experience, luck is more output than input

Sometimes at night she would be wakened by thunderclaps of passion from her father in the next room. They terrified and disgusted her, although they were not so nauseating as the underlying slithery hypocrisy of her mother's acceptance. She'd always thought her mother was the loving one and her father stolid.

If women were cowards, there wouldn't be babies, Sir Ringwood.

I'm loyal to you, too, because you have been kind to me and I won't return hurt for kindness.

The world once had real problems with heretics splitting the Church and infidels at the gates of Vienna. What real benefit was the discovery of America?" "None to the inhabitants thereof," Cannon admitted. "And its mineral wealth wrecked half the economies of Europe and financed endless wars." "In the end was it good for the world? You cannot price knowledge you haven't gained yet.

not all your brain goes to sleep when you do. It leaves a night watch on duty, and often the night watch can find answers that your waking brain missed.

There were other worlds than this one, and he could see no reason why Heaven would send him to a worse one.

He always said his reputation is all of himself a man can leave behind when he goes back to the elements. Honesty and honor, he said, courage and grace. Those four are what make a man. That's what he taught me, sire.

loved keeping secrets. It must be a leftover habit from his youth as a gleeman. Answers must wait until the appropriate moment and then—Hey Presto! The coin was in your ear all the time!

And character is not merely rare, it is hard to detect soon enough. Although nothing brings it out like matrimony.

Bellman nodded, smiling. "Even chance can bring justice?" "Exactly!" Grand Master said. "But it never hurts to nudge it in the right direction.

Of course she had always denied having family, but truth was a seasonal fruit.

Being a man is rolling up your sleeves and telling the world 'Now I'll play by the real rules—no more wooden swords. If I succeed, then the credit belongs to me, not my parents or teachers or employers, and I shall savor the prizes without guilt, knowing I earned them. And if I fail, then I'll pay the penalties without whimpering or blaming anyone else.' That's what manhood is, and it's up to you to decide when it starts.

In happier circumstances he also would enjoy watching this battle of brains, this scholarly free-for-all, with its air of sharpened quills, gutters running with ink, massacred hypotheses. Already