“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them” ~Mark Twain
I love quotes. I love gaining a quick and clever insight about life from someone smarter than me. Often I find these in Science Fiction and Fantasy novels or from interviews with SFF authors. Here are a few I’ve kept in mind:
“It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.” ~Gandalf the Grey (The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien)
“You backbiting, poisonous, treacherous, deceitful, wicked, clever girl. If this works I’ll buy you a pony.” ~Harry Dresden (Summer Knight by Jim Butcher)
“I’ve also been compared to Satan, which is something of an accomplishment for a debut novelist, I think.” ~Jesse Bullington, author of The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart
“I love you so much I want to shit” ~Bremer Dan Gorst (The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie)
That last one is my most recent favorite. (Much to her displeasure, my wife has heard this line often over the last couple months — Nothing like a good poop joke to keep your marriage strong.) I now want to hear your favorite SFF quotes. It doesn’t matter if it’s from the author as themselves, or from one of their characters.
First one that popped into my head (but I’ll probably be back with more later):
‘No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.’ (Steven Brust)
Is there a drop-dead date on this? I’m nowhere near my books at the moment and can’t think of any good zingers off the top of my head.
Here are mine :
McMaster Bujold The curse of Chalion
The gods’ most savage curses come to us as answers to our own prayers. Prayer is a dangerous business
D. Eddings The seeress of Kell
Consistency is the defense of a small mind (this one comes in handy!)
Parker Blue – Bite Me
The only way we’ve found to stop them is to kill them before they kill us.
Here are mine:
“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way.” (Patrick Rothfuss – The Name of the Wind)
“Happiness is the highest form of wisdom.” (Jacqueline Carey – Kushiel’s Mercy)
“Sleep is good,” he said. “And books are better.” (GRRM – A Clash of Kings)
I won’t be picking any winners till next Friday, so you have a week to keep the quotes coming. All good ones so far!
“To make life worth living a man or woman has to have a great love or a great cause… I have neither” – Robert E. Howard
I’ve always thought this bleakly profound. I have a few less depressing ones in mind, but I’ll have to check the exact wording before I post.
A few from The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch:
– There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.
– But time’s a river, Locke, and we’ve always drifted farther down it than we think.
– Many things are commonly thought, but perhaps not commonly thought all the way through.
– Don’t worry, Jean. It’ll be nothing but a routine evening with the duke and his entire fucking court, assembled in a glass tower six hundred feet in the air. What could possibly go wrong?
“Dragons have no masters. The question is always the same, with a dragon: will he talk with you or will he eat you? If you can count upon his doing the former, and not doing the latter, well then you are a dragonlord.”
I picked Kieran for the quote winner. The Robert Howard quote is pretty powerful stuff if you consider the influence the man has had on the industry. He was such a troubled human being, such as it is sometimes for creators like that.
Kieran if you are US based, send us a note via the lcontact form with what book from the stacks you would like.