Quotes from Joe Abercrombie

The one on the left, a sour-looking old bastard with a scar through his short grey hair, lifted his head to sneer up at her. "Fuck yourselves, you mad bitches." Rikke raised her brows at Corleth. Corleth raised hers back. "Fuck yourselves, he says." "I heard him," said Rikke. "Guess there might be time for that later. Just a celebratory finger or two. But right now, I'm a little busy stealing your city.

Men must sometimes do what they do not like if they are to be remembered.

By swap news do you mean drink?" "I do, and that excessively.

Perhaps we'll have some answers, at least, before the end. I always dreamed of dying well-informed.

Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say he's a fighter.

There was no such thing as luck. Luck was a word idiots used to explain the consequences of their own rashness, and selfishness, and stupidity. More often than not bad luck meant bad plans. And

Bayaz chuckled. "The Bloody-Nine, scared of shadows? I'd never have believed it." "Every shadow's cast by something," growled the Northman,

You have to be realistic about these things.

Laughing with a man was a good step forward. First comes the laughter, then the respect, then the trust.

Somewhere in the shadows a clock vomited up a few sluggish chimes.

She scarcely ever had a moment to herself, but she was grateful for that, too. When she was alone, the things she had seen and done the day of the uprising rushed into her mind, like filthy water into a holed boat, and dragged her down so quickly she felt she was drowning.

Every war carries within it the seeds of the next.

You will be struck, and when you are the force of it must not stagger you, the pain of it must not slow you, the shock of it must not cause you to doubt.

I know you're a great fencer, but I've been told your wit is even sharper than your sword. So much so in fact, that you only use your sword upon your friends, as your wit is far too deadly.

Ain't they people too, though?" muttered Beck, thinking of the face of that Union man lying dead in the shack yesterday. "Just like us?" Whirrun squinted across at him. "More than likely they are. But if you start thinking like that, well… you'll get no one killed at all.

I see you hurt your face." She shrugged. "I fell. I'm a clumsy fool." "I know how you feel. I'm such a fool I knocked half my teeth out and hacked my leg to useless pulp. Look at me now, a cripple. It's amazing where a little foolishness can take you, if it goes unchecked. We clumsy types should stick together, don't you think?" She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, stroking the bruises on her jaw. "Yes," she said, "I suppose we should.

My father used to say the seeds of the past bear fruit in the present.

The great wage secret wars for power and wealth, and they call it government. Wars of words, and tricks, and guile, but no less bloody for that. The casualties are many.

Once you've got a task to do, it's better to do it than to live with the fear of it.

You'll never hold up someone who can't swim for themselves. In the end, they'll drag you down with them.

Vanity, a loud voice and a loose relationship with the truth,' whispered Zuri. 'All the qualities of a successful politician.

I find hope is best abandoned early,' muttered Temple.

La mejor pradera es la que siempre se encuentra al otro lado del horizonte. El agua más dulce, la del siguiente río. El cielo más azul, el que siempre ves encima de otra colina. Y antes de que te des cuenta, una mañana te castañetean las articulaciones y no puedes dormir dos horas seguidas sin levantarte a orinar, y sólo entonces comprendes que el mejor lugar quedó atrás, y que no lo viste porque estabas obsesionado en seguir adelante.

But chaos is the natural state of things, for men pull always in their own directions. It is those who want the world to march all the same way that give themselves the challenge.