Quotes from Joe Abercrombie

It was busy in the tavern. Noisy with idle chatter and hot with wasted breath, the windows misted so the street outside became a sparkling blur. One of those places where rich young men gather to pretend to be poor young men, and vomit up whatever point of view they last heard.

You don't plan... to fight, Your Majesty?' 'Bloody hell, no. But I plan to damn well look like I might.

los grandes viajes empiezan con pasos pequeños.

Better off digging than getting buried.

Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse." —Joseph Brodsky What Freedom Looks Like The point of the shovel bit into the ground with the sharp scrape of metal on earth.

Sometimes pretty lies win the day. But sometimes ugly truths cut deeper.

She tipped back her head and swilled down the last of her wine. 'Having fucked the groom is really no excuse for missing a wedding, you know.

Desperation bakes heroes from the most rotten flour,

Glokta's walking made a steady rhythm on the grimy tiles of the floor. First the confident click of his right heel, then the tap of his cane, then the endless sliding of his left foot, with the familiar stabbing pains in the ankle, knee, arse and back. Click, tap, pain. That was the rhythm of his walking.

Conscience is a burden we choose to bear. Morality is the lie we tell ourselves to make its bearing easier.

Loyalty on a mercenary is like armour on a swimmer.

It is for one's own sake that one does good things.

Amazing how far you can get if you stick to a straight line and look like you've got every reason to be there.

First, always do your best to look the coward, the weakling, the fool, Silence is a warrior's best armour, the saying goes. Hard looks and hard words have never won a battle yet, but they've lost a few.

Dark times are the best for dark business,

Gratitude is like spring blooms, fine-smelling but short-lived. I'd keep a torch burning, d'you see, somewhere it brings to mind cities aflame. Make sure they stay grateful.

Whatever have you been feeding her?" "Fire and whetstones," said Yarvi, smiling.

She leaned a little closer to whisper it. "Primrose Heights. Calling a thing a different thing don't make it a different thing, now does it?" "Wouldn't know," croaked Broad, who beat men for a living and called it labour relations, "I'm no philosopher.

Can there be a more miserable occupation than getting drunk on one's own? Wine can keep a happy man happy, on occasion. A sad one it always makes worse.

The swamps will run out of flies," said Shudra, "before politicians run out of arguments.

It's 'cause it can all go wrong so easily that you make every effort to be sure it goes right.

She knew she'd been unhappy there. She'd said it so often, even she was tired of her moaning. Now she rubbed at the thorn and stinking fur on her cloak and wondered how she could've been so hurt by cold words and sharp looks. Seemed foolish and childish and weak. But that's what growing up is, maybe. Realising what a fucking arse you've been.

Watch your opponent as close as you can, and listen to opinions if you're given them, but once you've got your plan in mind, you fix on it and let nothing sway you.

Still, as Logen Ninefingers had been so very fond of saying: it was better to do it, than to live with the fear of it. He picked up his dress sword, but after a minute