Steven Brust > Quotes

“No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.”
― Steven Brust

“Everybody generalizes from one example. At least, I do.”
― Steven Brust

“The tools are real. The viewer is real, you, the artist, is real and a part of everything you paint. You connect yourself to the viewer by sharing something that is inside of you that connects with something inside of him. All you have as your guide is that you know what moves you. All you have to do it with is a brush, some chemical and canvas, and technique.”
― Steven Brust

“Most people seem to take pleasure in feeling superior to someone. I'm not like that, which pleases me because it makes me feel superior.”
― Steven Brust, Jhegaala

“One man's mistake is another man's opportunity.”
― Steven Brust

“Staring into the dragon's maw, one quickly learns wisdom.”
― Steven Brust

“Plan. Yes. Good idea. I should come up with a plan.”
― Steven Brust, Dzur

“The struggle is always worthwhile, if the end be worthwhile and the means honorable; foreknowledge of defeat is not sufficient reason to withdraw from the contest.”
― Steven Brust

“I will do you one last favour, in the name and memory of the figment you have replaced. I will clarify a misapprehension of yours. Circumstances did not conspire against me. I was not led into anything, nor did I fall. I chose my life and my course. I chose to do wrong in the hope that right might come of it. I regret it. I would choose differently now. But the choice was mine. Deny that, falsify it, tinsel it over with pious, pitying justification, and you deny everything I am and every scrap of what little good I have been able to do in my life. Good or bad, give me credit for what I have done. I would rather go honestly to Hell, admitting that I leaped knowingly into error and folly, than enter into the sweetest Heaven men can dream of by whining that I had been pushed.”
― Steven Brust, Freedom and Necessity

“True heroics must be carefully planned - and strenuously avoided.”
― Steven Brust

“I’ve heard it said: ‘By his home you shall know him’; and we all know that we must pay attention to anyone who reverses the subject and auxiliary verb in his sentence.”
― Steven Brust, Issola

“I'm told I'm very charming when people do what I want.”
― Steven Brust, Tiassa

“You can't put something together again unless you've torn it apart first.”
― Steven Brust

“I guess there's just a time for doing dumb things.”
― Steven Brust

“A stupid person can make only certain, limited types of errors; the mistakes open to a clever fellow are far broader. But to the one who knows how smart he is compared to everyone else, the possibilities for true idiocy are boundless.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what’s cool.”
― Steven Brust, The Paths of the Dead

“In our memories, there is a graveyard where we bury our dead. They all lie there together, the loved ones and the ones we hated, friends and foes and kin, with no distinction among them. We have to mourn every one of them, because our memories have made them as much a part of us as our bones or our skin. If we don't, we've no right to remember anything at all.”
― Steven Brust

“It is always man's ideas which drive his actions. This has, at times, resulted in great evil; but as we look around us, we cannot doubt that it has resulted in greater good.”
― Steven Brust, Sethra Lavode

“When I say that life is like an onion, I mean this: if you don't do anything with it, it goes rotten. So far, that's no different from other vegetables. But when an onion goes bad, it can either do it from the inside, or the outside. So sometimes you see one that looks good, but the core is rotten. Other times, you can see a bad spot on it, but if you cut that out, the rest is fine. Tastes sharp, but that's what you paid for, isn't it?”
― Steven Brust, Yendi

“What's the point of having weak enemies? They just waste your time.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“Can you be serious for two words?"

"Not without effort.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“The others followed, and found themselves in a small, stuffy basement, which would have been damp, smelly, close, and dark, were it not, in fact, well-lit, which prevented it from being dark.”
― Steven Brust, The Phoenix Guards

“You're stubborn, Vlad."

"Is that a compliment?”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“There is no excuse for bad manners, except fast reflexes.”
― Steven Brust, Teckla

“Why do you work so hard to make yourself disliked? I should think you'd find it happens enough on its own without putting yourself to any extra trouble.”
― Steven Brust, Tiassa

“He got up and walked out, so I missed seeing the powerful sorcerer doing his powerful sorcery, which would have involved him closing his eyes and then, I don't know, maybe taking a deep breath or something.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“There was a sargeant at a desk. I knew he was a sergeant because I recognized the marks on his uniform, and I knew it was a desk because it's always a desk. There's always someone at a desk, except when it's a table that functions as a desk. YOu sit behind a desk, and everyone knows you're supposed to be there, and that you're doing something that involves your brain. It's an odd, special kind of importance. I think everyone should get a desk; you can sit behind it when you feel like you don't matter.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“I have something to tell you."

"How, you have something to tell me?"

"You have understood me exactly."

"Well, I am listening."

"Listening? Then, you wish me to tell you?"

"Yes, that is it. I am listening, and therefore I wish you to tell me."

"Shall I tell you now?"

"No.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“A novel, in which all is created by the author's whim, must strike a more profound level of truth, or it is worthless."

"And yet, I have heard you say that any novel that relieves your ennui for an hour has proved its usefulness."

"You have a good memory. It must have been ten thousands of years ago that I uttered those words."

"And if it was?"

"In another ten thousand, perhaps I will agree with them again."

"In my opinion, the proper way to judge a novel is this: Does it give one an accurate reflection of the moods and characteristics of a particular group of people in a particular place at a particular time? If so, it has value. Otherwise, it has none."

"You do not find this rather narrow?"

"Madam—"

"Well?"

"I was quoting you.”
― Steven Brust, Sethra Lavode

“I have a clever and devious plan.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“Those are good questions. I recognize good questions, because I can come up with them myself.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“...so I walked down to the operation nearest my office, a brothel, and found the manager. Before he could say anything, I pinned the right side of his cloak to the wall with a throwing knife, about knee level. I did the same with his left side. I put a shuriken into the wall next to each ear, close enough to cut. Then Loiosh went after him and raked his claws down the guy's face. I went up and hit him just below his sternum, then kneed him in the face when he doubled over. He began to understand that I wasn't happy.”
― Steven Brust, Yendi

“Your job is to find better ideas, mine is to cut holes in the ones you have, and you've already done that pretty well.”
― Steven Brust, Iorich

“Pittsburgh. I'd been there. One of the most underrated cities in North America. People who'd never been there thought of it as a graveyard of abandoned steel mills, but it was a beautiful city, and it would be good to have it back.”
― Steven Brust, Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny