Quotes by Scott Lynch

“That's a sweet piece," said Jean, briefly forgetting to be aggravated. "You didn't snatch that off a street.""No," said Locke, before taking another deep draught of the warm water in the decanter. ...”

“If reassurances could dull pain, nobody would ever go to the trouble of pressing grapes.”

“Locke sighed.'So this is winning,' he said.'It is,' replied Jean. 'It can go fuck itself,' said Locke.”

“A boy may be as disagreeable as he pleases, but when a girl refuses to crap sunshine on command, the world mutters darkly about her moods.”

“... It's perfect! Locke would appreciate it.""Bug," Calo said, "Locke is our brother and our love for him knows no bounds. But the four most fatal words in the Therin language are 'Locke would appr...”

“My name's Jean Tannen, and I'm the ambush.”

“Crooked Warden, I will fear no darkness for the night is yours. Your night is my cloak, my shield, my escape from those who hunt to feed the noose. I will fear no evil, for you have made the night ...”

“Advice," Doa Vorchenza chuckled. "Advice. The years play a sort of alchemical trick, transmuting one's mutterings to a state of respectability. Give advice at forty and you're a nag. Give it at sev...”

“Theres no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.”

“Im not beholden to the confirmation of your prejudices; to be perfectly frank, the prospect of confining the female characters in my story to placid, helpless secondary places in the narrative is s...”

“Now, its undeniably true that male writers (including yours truly) are generally and commercially allowed to write about girl stuff without being penalized for doing so. In part this is the same ol...”

“Maybe the one real advantage to getting older is that you have the time to pull your head a little bit farther out of your ass.”

“You have to be a dead-eyed dirty-souled maniac to want to spend your extended life trading punches with other maniacs. Once you've seized that power, there's no getting off the merry-go-round. You ...”

“Her eyes [were] like the sudden plunge to blue depths beyond a continental shelf.”

“What do you think of the old boy?" said Jean."He's got a strangely sunny view of ten years of defeat", said Locke, "but if I get killed in the next six weeks, I want him to speak at my funeral.”

“A troupe learns to play like we all learn to screw, stumbling and jostling until everything's finally in the right place.”

“What do you do,' said Jean, 'with, ah, "ungifted" children when you have them?''Cherish them and raise them, you imbecile. Most of them end up working for us, in Karthain and elsewhere. What did yo...”

“Gods, I love this place," Locke said, drumming his fingers against his thighs. "Sometimes I think this whole city was put here simply because the gods must adore crime. Pickpockets rob the common f...”

“You want a lesson, boy? If you find yourself being born, climb back in as quick as you can, because life's a bottomless feast of shit.”

“Im speaking of the pursuit of excellence in all things. All things! Presence of mind and devotion to craft. A great artist has these. A great chef. A great master of tea. Theres powerful kung fu in...”