Quotes from Steven Erikson

Well, the world presented its challenges, and without challenges life was worthless and pointless and, most crucially, devoid of interest.

Words can so easily glide over mayhem and terror and horror, it is a miracle that trust ever exists amongst man.

Among his people, it was a long known truth, perhaps the only truth, that Nature fought but one eternal war. One foe. That, further, to understand this was to understand the world. Every world. Nature has but one enemy. And that is imbalance.

Regaining control of the gelding, Fiddler drove his heels into its flanks. They bolted forward, savagely riding down the group's generous leader.

Andiamo a prendere parte alla morte. Ed è in questi momenti, prima che le spade vengano sguainate, prima che il sangue bagni il terreno e le grida riempiano l'aria, che il senso di futilità scende su di noi. Senza le nostre armature, piangeremmo tutti quanti. In che altro modo potremmo reagire all'imminente promessa di incalcolabili perdite?

Anger burned for only so long

The scar around an old wound feels nothing." "To feel nothing is not a virtue.

Along the track, no more than fifty long paces from Duiker's position, a hapless squad of Malazan soldiers writhed on what were locally called Sliding Beds—four tall spears each set upright, the victim set atop the jagged points, at the shoulders and upper thighs. Depending on their weight and their strength of will in staying motionless, the impaling and the slow slide down to the ground could take hours.

The voracious insects waited for storms like this one, then rode the winds in search of prey.

You can shake your fist all you want but dead is dead.

The last of the night's tears churned down gunnels and swirled along street gutters. Muddy puddles filled potholes, reflecting

Only fools think the past is invisible

Capitalism is founded on the selective application of freedom among the few at the expense of everyone else.

In the meantime, old lover, let's drink against the night and remember other nights from long ago, when we had nothing and everything, when we knew it all but didn't know a fucking thing. Let's drink, Ivis, to the sunken islands of our youth.

I pray that doubt comes to you, that it tempers you with its wisdom. Those heroes in our legends, Karsa Orlong, they were terrible, they were monsters, for they were strangers to uncertainty

It was amazing what could be endured when in the grip of inertia.

The assassin stepped in then, his left hand moving in a high swing that buried its blade in the councilman's neck.

A terrible burden seemed to drain from him.

Nature,' intoned Daint, 'always finds a balance. Why disrupt such a delicate situation?' 'I've seen horses run away when you look at them sidelong, Daint.

When you play a soldier, you play it to the hilt. Nobody talks about what's obvious. Something staring you in the eye, you look around it and grumble about the weather. Anything important will come out in its own time. Soldiers have nothing to look forward to, making patience an easy virtue, and sometimes it's not just a virtue, but a contest of indifference.

Look into our friend's eyes, Karsa Orlong. Look closely." "I see nothing." "Delum sees the same, Warleader. He stares at... nothing. Unlike you, however, he does not turn away from it. Instead, he sees with complete comprehension. Sees, and is terrified.

The easiest thing to break is a man's heart

It's a poor scholar who trusts anyone's judgement. Even and perhaps especially his own.

Tattersail smiled. "The only death I fear is dying ignorant. No, is my answer.