Mark Lawrence Quotes & Sayings

The important thing in running away is not how fast you run but simply that you run faster than the next man. — Mark Lawrence

The way I'd put it," said Makin, "is that Rike can't make an omelet without wading thigh deep in the blood of chickens and wearing their entrails as a necklace. — Mark Lawrence

Ragnarok. Is that all the North ever thinks about? Is that what you want, Snorri? Some great battle and the world ruined and dead?" I couldn't blame him if he did. Not with what had befallen him this past year, but I would be disturbed to know he had always lusted after such an end, even on the night before the black ships came to Eight Quays.
The light kindling on my torch caught him in midshrug. "Do you want the paradise your priests paint for you on cathedral ceilings?"
"Good point. — Mark Lawrence

I showed him the empty time where my memory won't go. I let him look there. He ran from me then. He ran, and I chased him. But only to the edge of the marsh. Because it's a game. And I'm going to win. — Mark Lawrence

We all practice self-deception to a degree; no man can handle complete honesty without being cut at each turn. There's not enough room in a man's head for sanity alongside each grief, each worry, each terror that he owns. I'm well used to burying such things in a dark cellar and moving on. — Mark Lawrence

Pretty much everything exploded. — Mark Lawrence

Others torture themselves with maybes and populate their dreams with horrors more terrible than their worst enemy could inflict upon them. "Why — Mark Lawrence

They say God watches us in every moment. But I think, in some moments, when some deeds are done, he turns his face away. — Mark Lawrence

I hit her. I'm not one for hitting women . . . or anyone else for that matter. In fact I'm not one for hitting anything liable to hit back, but given the choice between a hefty man and a slightly built woman I'll punch out the woman every time. — Mark Lawrence

The air tasted of old magic, neither good nor ill, but of the land, having no love for man. — Mark Lawrence

Terror and entertainment are weapons of statehood, — Mark Lawrence

Sometimes the world slows and you notice every small thing, as if you stood between two beats of eternity's heart. — Mark Lawrence

Mountains are pretty at a distance, but my advice is to never let them get to be more than scenery. — Mark Lawrence

A strange thing - nails will hold a building together, but there's nothing better for taking a man apart. — Mark Lawrence

even the most sacred bonds could be broken under enough stress. — Mark Lawrence

Memories are dangerous things. You turn them over and over, until you know every touch and corner, but still you'll find an edge to cut you. — Mark Lawrence

Revenge is a business of calculation, best served cold. Rescue holds more of sacrifice, suicidal danger, and all manner of other madness that should have me running in the opposite direction. — Mark Lawrence

When they killed him, Mother wouldn't hold her peace, so they slit her throat. I was stupid then, being only nine, and I fought to save them both. But the thorns held me tight. I've learned to appreciate thorns since. The thorns taught me the game. They let me understand what all those grim and serious men who've fought the Hundred War have yet to learn. You can only win the game when you understand that it IS a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him loose them all. — Mark Lawrence

Still, perhaps that's all lives are, all the world is, a collision of vast conflagrations, each sparked from nothing. — Mark Lawrence

In the ancient tales, to which each Viking aspired, strenght was the only virtue, iron the only currency that mattered. Loki with his cunning, whereby a weaker man might outdo a stronger one, was an anathema to these folk. — Mark Lawrence

I maintain a balanced view of the world, but that balance is always in my favour. — Mark Lawrence

They expect her to run. They know she will run. And she does. But at them. — Mark Lawrence

A warrior fears the battle he missed. More than any fight he can make his own, he fears the fight that's gone, that ended without him, that no feat of arms can change. — Mark Lawrence

Ravens! Always the ravens. They settled on the gables of the church even before the injured became the dead. — Mark Lawrence

Take a rest and the world catches up with you. Lesson in life - keep moving. — Mark Lawrence

War, my friends, is a thing of beauty. — Mark Lawrence

I fell into unconsciousness reflecting rather abstractly that I'd never even known that there were two bones in a man's forearm. — Mark Lawrence

The Queen of Red watched on, with Katherine and the Silent Sister, all three of them studying me as if I were some puzzle that might be solved. — Mark Lawrence

A book is as dangerous as any journey you might take. The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front one. Treat them with respect. — Mark Lawrence

Knowledge and truth are different things. — Mark Lawrence

Conversations carry a momentum, there's a path they are expected to take, a cycle, a season, like the growing of crop. Take the rhythm of seasons away and farmers grow confused. Turn a conversation at right angles and men lose their surety. — Mark Lawrence

Undoreth, we. Battle-born. Raise hammer, raise axe, at our war-shout gods tremble. — Mark Lawrence

For the longest time I studied revenge to the exclusion of all else. I built my first torture chamber in the dark vaults of imagination. Lying on bloody sheets in the Healing Hall I discovered doors within my mind that I'd not found before, doors that even a child of nine knows should not be opened. Doors that never close again. I threw them wide. — Mark Lawrence

I can help you, Jorge. I can give you back your self. I can give you your will.' He held out his hand, palm open. 'Free will has to be taken,' I said. — Mark Lawrence

Some truths you can't speak. Some truths come barbed; each word would tear you inside out if you forced them from your lips. She - — Mark Lawrence

she was once rich and now was not. Perhaps to someone raised in luxury that was like starvation — Mark Lawrence

Running ain't no bad thing. Leastways if you run in the right direction. — Mark Lawrence

He said it would ward off evil spirits. That just left me the good ones to worry about. — Mark Lawrence

You're going now?" Makin asked, putting down his bottle-in-a-basket.
"Well, unless you want to drink till we're all sunburnt and maudlin and then declare undying love for each other and part with drunken hugs?" I said. — Mark Lawrence

Lundist held that a man who can observe is a man apart. Such a man can see opportunities where others see only the obstacles — Mark Lawrence

It doesn't take long in Hell before your definition of "good company" reduces to "not dead." For — Mark Lawrence

Odin keep us.' Hakon's wisdom on the subject. 'He's as likely to as the White Christ.' I had no bone to pick with heathen bone-pickers. One god or many, none of them ever seemed to like us much. — Mark Lawrence

I warn you, Captain, God crafted these creatures for three things only. Passing wind from the rear end, passing wind from the front end, and spitting. They spit stomach acid so tell your men, and don't let anyone venture into the hold with a naked flame or you may find yourself the master of a marvelous collection of floating splinters. Also, we'll all drown. — Mark Lawrence

All our lives draw in toward a single point and time, not too many miles or years from this room. A point in history when the emperor will either save us or damn us. All we can do is buy him the time he needs - and the price must be paid in blood. — Mark Lawrence

Is this going to be one of those times when you pretend not to have a plan until the last moment? And then turn out to really not have one?- Sir Makin to King Jorg — Mark Lawrence

A consequence of boredom is that a man is forced to look either to the future or the past, or sideways into his imagination. — Mark Lawrence

I'm not a thief.' Snorri lowered his brows. 'All right, we'll call it pillage, — Mark Lawrence

The Lights ... " said Norv the Raw, as if we might not have noticed.
Before any further statements of the obvious could be made doors of gleaming steel started to slide down from recesses above every entrance above the Gilden Gate. The action accompanied by a squealing noise that set my teeth on edge, the sound of nails down Lundist's chalkboard.
"The doors ... " said Norv. I resisted temptation to beat him around the head. — Mark Lawrence

I manage to read about one book a month, all fantasy these days. — Mark Lawrence

Fire isn't patient. Fire does not negotiate. I should have known these things. — Mark Lawrence

When a man can't trust his eyes what does he fall back on . . . and what does the choice he makes reveal about him? — Mark Lawrence

Memory is all we are. Moments and feelings, captured in amber, strung on filaments of reason. Take a man's memories and you take all of him. Chip away a memory at a time and you destroy him as surely as if you hammered nail after nail through his skull. — Mark Lawrence

I've learned to wear my face as a mask, and generally I can write what I choose on it. — Mark Lawrence

But who would I be then? Who would I be if I let go the wrongs that have shaped me? — Mark Lawrence

What's it going to take for you to open that door? Gold? Blood?"
"Your name and password."
"My name is Honorous Jorg Ancrath, my password is divine right. Now open the fecking door. — Mark Lawrence

There's a problem with continually stamping down on the least sensible instincts that drive men to recklessly endanger themselves. Even the most reasonable and level-headed of us have only limited space to store such unwanted emotion. You keep putting the stuff away, shoving it to the back of your mind but like an over-full cupboard there comes a point where you try to cram one more thing into it and all of a sudden something snaps, the catch gives, the door bursts open and everything inside spills out on top of you. — Mark Lawrence

Lucifer spoke thus. Pride took him from heaven, though he sat at God's right hand.' Her voice grew faint, the hint of a whisper. 'In the end pride is the only evil, the root of all sins.'
'Pride is all I have. — Mark Lawrence

This is a bad idea."
"If you ever stop saying that, I'll know it's time to start worrying. — Mark Lawrence

Still, children hope in ways adults find hard to imagine. They carry their dreams before them, fragile, in both arms, waiting for the world to trip them. — Mark Lawrence

I like mountains, always have done. Big obstinate bits of rock sticking up where they're not wanted and getting in folk's way. Great. Climbing them is a different matter altogether though. I hate that. — Mark Lawrence

The world is better shaped by freedom. Even if it means giving foolish men their head. At the heart of all things, nestled among Yggdrasil's roots, is the trick of creation that puts to shame all of Loki's deceptions. What saves us all are the deeds of fools as often as the acts of the wise. "Go — Mark Lawrence

I'm coming for you and death will not hide you." Jorg Ancrath — Mark Lawrence

To err is human, to forgive is divine ... but I'm only a cardinal and cardinals are human, so rather than forgiving you I'm going to err towards beating you with this stick. — Mark Lawrence

Something in me had got broken, but not so broken I didn't remember what it was. — Mark Lawrence

An echo of his misery rang in me and confused itself with my own. That tear might have been for little Emy - it might have been for me - it probably was for me, but I'll tell myself it was for both of us, and perhaps one day I'll believe it. — Mark Lawrence

It's harder to forgive someone else your own sins than those uniquely theirs. Much harder. — Mark Lawrence

When a decision is inevitable you may as well take it as quick as possible so that you still have something left to deal with whatever consequences may arise. — Mark Lawrence

Brother Maical's wisdom lies in knowing he is not clever and letting himself be led. The foolishness of mankind is that we do not do the same. — Mark Lawrence

The perfumes of lords and ladies tickled at my nose: lavender and orange oil. On the road, shit has the decency to stink. — Mark Lawrence

The comfort of shaving with your knife is in the knowing that it is honed to perfection. — Mark Lawrence

I took the Nuban's bow. I didn't trust the midget to be able to run down any thieves, and besides, I might want to shoot a circus clown or two. Just for laughs. — Mark Lawrence

Questions for questions. You're a man who's spent time at court. — Mark Lawrence

This is where the wise man turns away. This is where the holy kneel and call on God. These are the last miles, my brothers. Don't look to me to save you. Don't think I will not spend you. Run if you have the wit. Pray if you have the soul. Stand your ground if courage is yours. But don't follow me.
Follow me, and I will break your heart. — Mark Lawrence

Tell me a story' began every seduction ever." "The — Mark Lawrence

I kissed her cheek then, because I feared to do it and though commonsense may occasionally bind me, I'll be fucked if fear will. — Mark Lawrence

Many men do not look their part. Wisdom may wait behind a foolish smile, bravery can gaze from eyes that cry fright. — Mark Lawrence

It never pays to walk blindly. Especially not in your own castle where familiarity hides so much - even when we have the eyes to see. — Mark Lawrence

And, because in some hard core of me, in some stubborn trench of selfish refusal, I could not, even at ten years of age, surrender to anything or anyone, I fought that pain. I analysed its offensive, and found its lines of attack. It festered, like the corruption in a wound turned sour, drawing strength from me. I knew enough to know the remedy. Hot iron for infection, cauterize, burn, make it pure. I cut from myself all the weakness of care. The love for my dead, I put aside, secure in a casket, an object of study, a dry exhibit, no longer bleeding, cut loose, set free. The capacity for new love, I burned out. I watered it with acid until the ground lay barren and nothing there would sprout, no flower take root. — Mark Lawrence

We came to woodlands, with leaves unfurling on every branch, as if one blow of spring's green hammer had set them exploding from the bud. — Mark Lawrence

When all you have to look at is white, given time you will see a symphony in shades of pale. — Mark Lawrence

When you become a father, it changes you." Snorri spoke towards the fire's glow. "You see the world in new ways. Those who are not changed were not properly men to begin with. — Mark Lawrence

Too much cleverness can be a torment to a man, setting his wits against his faith. — Mark Lawrence

Nothing can be cut away. Even the worst of our memories is part of the foundation that keeps us in the world. — Mark Lawrence

I didn't know what I would do except that Edris Dean would be dead at the end of it. — Mark Lawrence

Though I might walk where angels fear to tread, I try not to rush in like a fool. — Mark Lawrence

Violence is the language of destruction, flesh so often the subject, fragile, easy to break beyond repair, precious; what else would we burn to make the world take note? — Mark Lawrence

After all, that's all a man really needs: a big city full of sin and sleaze, and a chance. — Mark Lawrence

Wait when waiting is called for. That's what Lundist used to tell me. But never hesitate — Mark Lawrence

I remember the stink of corruption. It had a kind of sweetness to it, a sweetness that'd make you want to hurl. — Mark Lawrence

Waiting with too few men, and with every instinct telling me to run. Every instinct, except for that one to hold or break, but never bend. I — Mark Lawrence

Never go questing without a bit of rope, at least that's how the stories have it. — Mark Lawrence

Thorn carried in each limb every hour of her training, every day and year bound into the muscle of her arms, written along the length of her legs, beaten into the hardness of stomach and thigh. She knew five dozen ways to kill, she knew them with a lover's intimacy, and in the execution perhaps lust also played its role - for what is lust but a hunger? And hunger must be fed. — Mark Lawrence

Do you know why the leaves change colour, Makin?" They did look spectacular. The forest had grown around us as we traveled and the canopy burned with colour, from deepest red to flame orange, an autumn fire spreading in defiance of the rain.
"I don't know," he said, "Why do they change?"
"Before a tree sheds a leaf it pumps it full of all the poison it can't rid itself of otherwise. That red there - that's a man's skin blotching with burst veins after an assassin spikes his last meal with roto-weed. The poison spreading through him before he dies. — Mark Lawrence

Tell me, tutor,' I said. 'Is revenge a science, or an art? — Mark Lawrence

You can win the victories you seek, Jorg. But only if you find better reasons to want them. — Mark Lawrence

Better a long ignoble life of shallow pleasures than a short stab at heroism, ending with a short stab. And just because one man plays another doesn't always mean that it's not the right direction for both of them. — Mark Lawrence

I have read that the Builders made toys that could play chess. Toys, as small as the silver bishop in my hand, that could defeat any player, taking no time to select moves that undid even the best minds amongst their makers. The bishop made a satisfying click when tapped to the board. I beat out a little rhythm, wondering if any point remained in playing a game that toys could own. If we couldn't find a better game then perhaps the mechanical minds the Builders left behind would always win. — Mark Lawrence

I've always felt that the placement of a man's testicles is an eloquent argument against intelligent design. — Mark Lawrence

Courtesy costs nothing, which makes it the ideal gift when you're as cheap as I am. — Mark Lawrence

So what was that about?" Makin asked, striding up behind.
"They shot my idiot," I said. — Mark Lawrence