Joe Abercrombie

So often in life, moments that are long anticipated turn out to be profound disappointments.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter too much what choice you make, as long as you make it quick and stick to it.

People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.

Not looking much, not saying much, not seeming much, that’s a good first step in being dangerous, eh, Ninefingers?

Not looking much, not saying much, not seeming much, that’s a good first step in being dangerous, eh, Ninefingers?

Shock and surprise, my little beauties, and quickness to strike, and lack of pity. These are the things that make a killer

“They say that luck is a woman. She’s drawn to those that least deserve her.”

The worst enemies are the ones that live next door

You arrogant old dolt, how dare you? You built your reputation on my successes, then when I needed your help you cut me off. And now you come to me, and seek my help, and call me friend?

I've fought in three campaigns,' he began. 'In seven pitched battles. In countless raids

and skirmishes and desperate defences, and bloody actions of every kind. I've fought in the driving snow, the blasting wind, the middle of the night. I've been fighting all my life, one enemy or another, one friend or another. I've known little else. I've seen men killed for a word, for a look, for nothing at all. A woman tried to stab me once for killing her husband, and I threw her down a well. And that's far from the worst of it. Life used to be cheap as dirt to me. Cheaper.

'I've fought ten single combats and I won them all, but I fought on the wrong side and for all the wrong reasons. I've been ruthless, and brutal, and a coward. I've stabbed men in the back, burned them, drowned them, crushed them with rocks, killed them asleep, unarmed, or running away. I've run away myself more than once. I've pissed myself with fear. I've begged for my life. I've been wounded, often, and badly, and screamed and cried like a baby whose mother took her tit away. I've no doubt the world would be a better place if I'd been killed years ago, but I haven't been, and I don't know why.'

He looked down at his hands, pink and clean on the stone. 'There are few men with more blood on their hands than me. None, that I know of. The Bloody-Nine they call me, my enemies, and there's a lot of 'em. Always more enemies, and fewer friends. Blood gets you nothing but more blood. It follows me now, always, like my shadow, and like my shadow I can never be free of it. I should never be free of it. I've earned it. I've deserved it. I've sought it out. Such is my punishment.'