Peter V. Brett Quotes

Weakness shown is worse than weakness felt.

Can't trust no one else to do what you won't do for yourself.

Hurting with words is easy," Mairy replied, echoing Leesha's earlier statement, "it's healing with them what's hard.

I think, sometimes, when he's busy loving you, he forgets to hate himself.

There is no man in creation who is not your brother No woman not your sister, no child not your own For all suffer the Plague, righteous and sinful alike And all must band together to withstand the night.

Why are you doing this?" Amanvah whispered, her accent thick like her mother's, but every word clear. "My mother would not be so kind to one who tried to poison her."
"Nor would mine, but we are not our mothers, Amanvah," Leesha said.

Every day away from succor was another night spent outside with the corelings, and not even Arlen took that lightly, but he had a deep and driving need to see things that no other man had seen, to go places no other man had gone. He had been eleven when he ran away from home. Now he was twenty, and had seen more of the world than any but a handful of other men.

Corespawn it, Ren, you can't just go around cutting people's hands off!

Pain teaches, Par'chin, Jardir had once told him, and so we give it freely. Pleasure teaches nothing, and so must be earned.

Why would you do that for me?" Leesha asked.
Rojer smiled, taking her hand in his crippled one. "We're survivors, aren't we?" he asked. "Someone once told me that survivors have to look out for one another.

Letting your guard down, even for a moment, invites death.

Indeed, their auras matched the look, shame and embarrassment palpable. Jardir assessed the situation, and his eyes darkened. Even if Shanvah had lain with him willingly, she was Shanjat's daughter, and Jardir's niece. Whether his spirit was penitent or not, Jardir would have no choice but to sentence his old friend to death.

Rojer nodded, but his eye grew wet. Leesha squeezed his hand. "Herb Gatherers see death often," she told him. "No one, no one, ever goes to the Creator with all their business complete. We all get a different length of time, but it needs to be enough, regardless.

I don't pretend to see the path, but I know it's there all the same. One day, we'll look back and wonder how we ever missed it.

You can't help everyone, Arlen," Ragen said, "but you should make every
effort to help those you can.

I have rare moments of competence.

Book four is tentatively titled 'The Skull Throne ,' and book five is 'The Core .' It's kind of hard to talk much about them without giving away things from 'Daylight War,' however.

There's nothing gained in lamenting what never was.

You came to lands that were not yours, murdered thousands of men, raped their women, enslaved their children, and think your soul is clean because their holy book's a little different from yours! You keep the demons from them, ay, but chickens on the chopping block don't call the butcher Deliverer for keeping the fox at bay.

Because we forgot magic,' Gim

Choose a book," she said. "Any book. Bring it here, and I'll show you what else the world can offer.

Folk can't learn their lessons if they skip school.

Let people hide in their homes, caged like chickens. Cowards deserve no better.

Fear and pain are only wind. Let it blow past you.

Kaji's ways," Abban said. "Interpreted by corrupt Damaji to their own ends over the centuries.

One of these days, your luck won't hold, his father's voice reminded him.
Maybe, he thought back to it, but not today.

It seems our cultures are a natural insult to each other Par'chin," Jardir said.

Let others determine your worth and you're already lost, because no one wants people worth more than themselves.

The future was a living thing, and could never be truly known. It rippled with change whenever someone used free will to make a choice. But

We cannot tell the rain when to come, nor the winter, nor the cold.

I'm not going to hide away and leave my friends to the corelings!" she shouted. "We'll find a way to ward the Holy House, and make our stand here. Together! And if demons should dare come and try to take my children, I have secrets of fire that will burn them from this world!"
My children, Leesha thought, in the sudden silence that followed. Am I Bruna now, to think of them so?
She looked around, taking in the scared and sooty faces, not a one taking charge, and realized for the first time that as far as everyone was concerned, she was Bruna. She was Herb Gatherer for Cutter's Hollow now. Sometimes that meant bringing healing, and sometimes ...
Sometimes it meant a dash of pepper in the eyes, or burning a wood demon in your yard.

You are my daughter. I would love you if you put out the sun.

I will respect the corelings, Arlen thought, but I will never stop fighting them.

He feared no challenger face-to-face, but war was deception, as Khevat had taught him, and not all men fought their enemies with spear and fist.

Inevera raised an eyebrow. "You suggest I mislead the council of Damaji about what I see in the sacred dice?" Abban smiled. "Damajah, please. Do not insult us both.

There's other ways to protect yourself and your family, Arlen. Wisdom. Prudence. Humility. It's not brave to fight a battle you can't win.

Ay, wait," Rojer said. "Don't I get a say in this? All a sudden I'm intended, and have to live with my new mother-in-law?" "What's wrong with my mum?" Kendall demanded. "Nothing," Rojer said. "Corespawned right," Kendall said.

Cowards kill as often as heroes

It doesn't serve the dead to stop living yourself, out of guilt.

I think George R. R. Martin made fantasy grow up. He brought a level of reality into the storytelling where you realize the good guys don't always win and anyone can die, because that's how life works. Bringing that level of reality into the story I think forced the genre to mature in a lot of ways that it hadn't prior.

I am the palm and this is only wind. I will bend, but I will not break.

I'll take my chances with this life all the same. The next one will find you no matter where you run. No sense chasing it.

Arlen welcomed the pain, for it meant he was alive when he had no right to be.

All men are brothers in the night.

Speak not of Everam and Nie, Par'chin. You believe in neither." "And still better at your religion than you!

Bruna nodded. We keep the knowledge of the old world for the day it will be needed again, but that knowledge comes with a great responsibility. If the histories of the ancient wars of man tell us anything, it's that men cannot be trusted with the secrets of fire.

When I made the decision to really get serious about my writing, I set myself a goal of 1,000 words a day for seven days. If I got to 7,000 words before Monday I could take a day off, but I had to get there. I had to do that every week.

We all make mistakes, Gared. But those that can see 'em are halfway to being better men.

He bowed. "With respect, Sharum Ka, how are we to get your warriors to the city on the lake to conquer it without boats?" "We will build our own. How hard can it ... " Jayan trailed off, looking at the huge cargo vessels with their intricate rigging. "Put them out!" he cried.

My breakthrough was when I began to write during my commute, at first taking notes on my Palm Pilot, and then moving on to writing full prose on the tiny QWERTY keyboard of my iPaq smartphone. I got so fast that I was averaging 400 words during the 35 minutes or so I spent on the subway each way, or 800 words round trip.

There are times in life when we feel so very alive that when they pass, we feel ... diminished. When that happens, we'll do almost anything to feel so alive again.

Fear and pain can only touch you if you let them.

As he watched the creatures that had stolen his world for another night, Arlen dreamed of bringing those wards back. He dreamed of traveling beyond Tibbet's Brook, and resolved that he would leave one day, even if it meant spending a night outside.
With the demons.

I learned a lot from this book, because I wrote it myself. My rating may be somewhat biased as a result.

Love nothing so much you cannot leave it at the bargaining table.

Hiding isn't always enough, Arlen,' Ragen said. 'Sometimes, hiding kills something inside of you, so that even if you survive the demons, you don't really.

Don't go getting swollen because you got lucky once. Any Messenger alive will tell you to stay out at night when you have to, not because you want to. The ones that want to always end up cored.

In his mind, the book, as much as anything in the world, was responsible for the wretched state of humanity - cowering and weak when they should stand strong; always afraid, never hopeful. But for all that, many of the Canon's sentiments about brotherhood and the fellowship of men were ones the Warded Man believed in deeply. He

All the joy and color was washed from her face, and at first the sadness only made her more beautiful. But

Arther, what is first on the agenda?"
...
"The same as ever, Highness. Elections, land, and entitlements." Arther had learned to mask much of his distaste at that last word, but his lips still puckered as if it soured his tongue.
...
Entitlements. Leesha hated the word, too, but not for the same reason as Arther. It was a cold word, used by those with full bellies to bemoan feeding those without.

Walk with me." Abban held up his crutch.
"It is a long way to the palace, Par'chin," he said.
"I'll walk slowly," Arlen said, knowing the crutch had nothing to do with the refusal.
"You don't want to be seen with me outside the market, my friend," Abban warned. "That alone may cost you the respect you've earned in the Maze."
"Then I'll earn more," Arlen said. "What good is respect, if I can't walk with my friend?

How did you deal with it? How do you stop loving someone?"
"The Creator didn't make love conditional," Jona said. "Love is what makes us human. What separates us from the corelings. There is value in it, even when it is not requited.