Quotes from Joe Abercrombie

From the moment it is born, from the moment it is built, everything is always dying, decaying, drifting into chaos.

Bayaz frowned. 'My brother Yulwei helped you in the desert. You would have been killed if not for him. Yo gave him your word-' 'Word? Hah! A word is an easy chain to break, old man.' And Ferro jerked her wrists apart in front of her. 'There. I am free of it.

Because he'd been hoping... perhaps he still was. But hoping had made a fool of him. And Shivers was good and sick of looking the fool.

In case you never noticed, bards have a habit of dressing things up. There is a fine living, d'ya see, in songs about deep-wise witches, but in shitty idiots, less.

You can be as great a man as you please while you're alive. Makes not a straw of difference once you go back to the mud. And

Flags never add to a man, d'you see, just stand in for something he's missing.

It was better not to mention things unless you were sure of the right language. Every day brought new wrong words to avoid. New ideas at odds with the Great Change. Everyone was free to say what they wanted now, of course. You just had to be careful in case it got you hanged.

Government by committee! Everyone pulling their own way! You can only react, never prepare!

Hand of iron! Head of iron! Heart of iron!" And he lashed blindly with his sword over the shield wall. "Your death comes, sang the hundred!

Love and hate have just knife's edge between them.

I did a good thing, and so, of course, there is a price to be paid.

The mistakes of old,' intoned Bayaz with the highest pomposity, 'should be made only once. Any worthwhile education, therefore, must be founded on a sound understanding of history.

War?' 'It's when a fight gets so big almost no one comes out of it well.

I've always been my own worst enemy," he muttered. "Stick with me, then." Her smile had widened some. "You'll soon have worse.

Downside was frowning at the Shanka corpses, weighing his axe and wondering where to start. "Never thought o' myself as a man who fills sacks with heads." "No one sets off in that direction," said Clover, puffing out his cheeks one more time. "But before you know it, there you bloody are.

What are you doing?' 'What we should all be doing,' Clover closed his eyes. 'Biding my time.' 'What's the difference between biding it and wasting it?' Clover saw no need to open his eyes. 'Results, woman. Results.

Do you know what's worse than a villain? A villain who thinks he's a hero.

Is it gold?' asked the lad. 'Copper,' she lied, since gold is apt to turn unpleasant meetings into deadly ones.

He squirmed as though he was the one who'd killed Edwal and named Thorn a murderer. All he'd done was watch. Watch and do nothing.

A good liar lies as little as possible.

War killed some soldiers, sure, but it left the rest with money, and songs to sing, and a fire to sit around. It killed a lot more farmers, and left the rest with nought but ashes.

had been Benna's favourite place in Westport. He'd dragged her there twice a week while they were in the city. A shrine of mirrors and cut glass, polished wood and glittering marble. A temple to the god of male grooming. The high priest—a small, lean barber in a heavily embroidered apron—stood sharply upright in the centre of the floor, chin pointed to the ceiling, as though he'd been expecting them that very moment to enter.

A veces lo mejor que puede hacerse con el peligro es correr hacia él

La forma de doblegar a una persona para que cumpla tu voluntad es ofrecerle lo que ella quiere, no obligarla a pronunciar un juramento.