Quotes from Joe Abercrombie

No. Just no. The hairiness, and the lumpiness, and the great big fumbling fingers and … balls. I mean, balls. What's that about? That is one singularly unattractive piece of anatomy. That is just … that is bad design, is what that is

Shit at least makes flowers grow. Honour isn't even that useful.

I am ready to die, but I refuse to lose.

The more you learn, the more you realise how little you know. Still, the struggle itself is worthwhile. Knowledge is the root of power, after all.

The Forest that had been about her all her life, certain as a mountain, was made ashes. The high gable that had stood for two hundred years fallen in ruin. Throvenland was torn apart like smoke on the wind. Nowhere would be safe, ever again.

Cuando no se puede tener algo, se quiere. Cuando se tiene, de repente brotan las dudas. Y luego, cuando parece que se puede perder, se descubre que se necesita más que nunca. El

An excessive and a brutal act, but better to act with too much force than too little. Better to be held in fear, than in contempt... There is no place for sentiment in politics.

Exactly so!" called Skifr. "I daresay this tight-lipped Vansterman knows battle. How did you get that scar, my dove?" "I was milking a reindeer and she fell on me," said Fror. "She was ever so sorry afterward, but the damage was done" And Brand wondered if he winked his misshapen eye. "Truly a hero's mark, then," grunted Thorn, curling her lip. Fror shrugged. "Someone must bring in the milk.

Fearlessness is a fool's boast, to my mind. The only men with no fear in them are the dead, or the soon to be dead, maybe. Fear teaches you caution, and respect for your enemy, and to avoid sharp edges used in anger. All good things in their place, believe me. Fear can bring you out alive, and that's the very best anyone can hope for from any fight. Every man who's worth a damn feels fear. It's the use you make of it that counts.

You killed him all to bits, and robbed everyone who knew him, and cut all the good he might ever do out of the world.

Give Bethod a kick from me, once you have him under your boot." "That I will, unless he gets me under his." "Never easy, kicking upwards.

Everyone's calling 'emselves that these days," muttered Rikke. "I hear even babies are doing it.

Pardon me,' said Glokta, wiping his running eye with a finger, 'but I spent two years in the Emperor's prisons. I daresay, if I had known I'd be there half that long at the start, I would have made a more concerted effort to kill myself.

Prefer to eat the eggs I've got, my king, rather'n the ones still up in the tree.

I fought on horseback often enough. Charged small bodies of infantry, broke and pursued them. A noble business, cutting men down as they run, I earned all kinds of praise for it.

And so the doubts begin... Our doom draws nearer, and every man sees it. A strange thing, death. Far away, you can laugh at it, but as it comes closer it looks worse and worse. Close enough to touch, and no one laughs.

One need not love one's enemy, or even fear him, to desire peace. One need only love oneself.

No one remembers how the fight was won. I won. No one cares how.

Sometimes Wile wondered whether a cause could be right that needed folk burned, cut and otherwise mutilated.

The Shanka might be ever so full of mad fury, but even they had to fear him. Everything did. Even the dead, who felt no pain. Even the cold stone, which did not dream. Even the molten iron feared the Bloody-Nine. Even the darkness.

never worry about what has been done, only about what will be.

Hard words are for fools and cowards. Calder might have been both, but Logen was neither. If you mean to kill, you're better getting right to it than talking about it. Talk only makes the other man ready, and that's the last thing you want.

All heroes' news, like something from the songs, but there's nothing like others' successes to make your own failures sting the worse.

Dimbik had once been told that the best soldiers are rarely courageous. That was when he had been sure it was the career for him. He started to slide one hand towards his sword, far from sure what he would do with it once it reached the hilt.