Quotes from Scott Lynch

Nobody admires anyone else without qualification. If they do they're after an image, not a person.

Barsavi realized something that too many men in the city were slow to grasp; an idea that he reinforced years later when he took the Berangias sisters to be his primary enforcers. He was wise enough to understand that the women of Camorr could be underestimated only at great peril to one's health.

The next person who tells me something like, "Squiggle-fuck the rightwise cock-swatter with a starboard jib," is going to get a knife to the throat.

As Chains had once said, feeling like you wanted desperately to die was fine evidence that you had yet to do so.

If you put Durant's brains in a thimble full of water they'd look like a ship lost in the middle of the sea.

This is where you and I are headed.... Look for us in history books and you'll find us in the margins. Look for us in legends and you might just find us celebrated

I have always found the presumptions of others to be the best possible disguise—haven't you?

If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time." Chinese Proverb

You write?" "Why, all the time," said Locke, "except of course when I'm wrong.

Nah, if she's the rose, he can be her thorn." Calo snapped his fingers. "The Thorn of Camorr! Now, that's got some shine to it!" "That's the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard," said Locke.

Hard lessons were handed out. As many men learned to their sorrow, it's impossible to be intimidating when one angry woman has your cock between her teeth and another is holding a stiletto to your kidneys.

Have you considered extreme, desperate measures like talking to her again?" "Yeah, but, well..." "You've yeah-but your way to this point," said Jean. "You're going to yeah-but this mess until it's time to go home, and I don't doubt you'll yeah-but her out of your life. Quit circling at a distance. Go talk to her, for Preva's sake.

Crooked Warden," said Locke, "men are stupid. Protect us from ourselves. If you can't, let it be quick and painless.

You needed a bath," Jean interrupted. "You were covered in self-pity.

Get serious about telling me where that money is," said Conté, "or I'll kick your ass so hard every piece of shit that falls out of it for the rest of your life will have my gods-damned heel print on it.

I shall give you a little prophecy, Locke Lamora, as best as I have seen it. 'Three things you must take up and three things you must lose before you die: a key, a crown, a child.' Patience pushed her hood up over her head. 'You will die when a silver rain falls.

Caldris led them over to a large covered basket that sat on the stones near the docked dinghy. He undid the cover, reached in and removed a live kitten. "- Hello, you monstrous little necessity". "- Mrrrrwwwwww", said the monstrous little necessity.

He wasn't training us for a calm and orderly world where we could pick and choose when we needed to be clever. He was training us for a situation that was fucked up on all sides. Well, we're in it, and I say we're equal to it. I don't need to be reminded that we're up to our heads in dark water. I just want you boys to remember that we're the gods-damned sharks.

The more in control the mark thinks they are, the more easily they respond to real control.

Time's a river, Locke, and we've always drifted farther down it than we think.

But that's precisely what you're doing. Listen, if you walk into a whorehouse and find yourself getting sucked off, it's because you put some money on the counter, not because the gods transported a pair of lips to your cock." "That's Ã¢â'¬Â¦ a really incredible metaphor, Jean, but I think I could use some help translating it.

The only person who gets away with Locke Lamora games—" "—is Locke Lamora—

He was bewildered at how quickly he had escaped his old life and fallen into this new one with strangely pleasant crazy people.

Ah," said Jean, "but when a woman has your heart, she doesn't have poor moods. Only interesting moods … and more interesting moods.