Quotes from Joe Abercrombie

She never saw more damage done than by folk acting on high principle.

Guilt is a luxury reserved for those still breathing and with no unbearable pain, cold or hunger demanding all their fickle attention.

Men are brittle, I reckon. They don't bend into new shapes. They get broken into them. Crushed into them.

She had a crooked smile on her face as she turned, but it slid off suddenly when she saw who was standing there. Glokta snorted. 'Don't worry, I get that reaction from everyone. Even myself, every morning, when I look into the mirror.' If I can even manage to stand up in front of the damn thing.

What's the difference? Fill a hundred pits with dead Northmen, congratulations, have a parade! Kill one man in the same uniform as you? A crime. A murder. Worse than despicable. Are we not all men? All blood and bone and dreams?

I suppose love falls where it falls.' 'Generally, one can see it toppling from afar, and make an effort to get out of the way.

Names turned over by time, like the plough turning the soil. Bringing up the new while the old were buried in the mud.

Why the mad hair, girl?" "Because damn you," growled Thorn, "that's why.

Where d'you get the knife?" He wished he had one. "He gave it to me." There was a crumpled shape in the shadows by the wall, the matting all around soaked with dark blood. "This way.

You can weep over each other's hidden nobility when we're safe!

Some people, Orso supposed, can never forgive being forgiven.

I have seen hell, it is a great city under siege.

Call it art, you can get away with anything.

Facing an enemy on the battlefield took courage, but you had your friends beside you. Standing alone against your friends, that was a different kind of courage.

The tongueless torturer and the flower of chivalry. An unlikely alliance.

I've been on jobs like that before, everyone stuck on the money not the work, watching their backs every minute. Bad for your health and your business. We'll do this civilised, or not at all. What do you say? "I say civilised," said Shenkt. "For pity's sake, let's kill like honest men.

Apologise to my fucking dice!

These are dangerous times alright, and yet danger and opportunity often walk hand in hand.

That got him thinking about his life. It seemed a bitter, pointless sort of life now. No one was any better off because of it. Full of violence and pain, with not much but disappointment and hardship in between.

You will get such flattery as you deserve, and my foot in your arse the rest of the time.

Defeats do men far more good than victories.

But that's the nice thing about looking backwards. You can pick out the bits that suit your story and toss the unhappy truths to the wind.

A bitter ending' said Yarvi. 'Many sweet stories have them', said Jaud.

The seeds of the past bear fruit in the present,