The Books of the South (The Chronicles of the Black Company, #3.5-5)

by Glen Cook

I guess each of us, at some time, finds one person with whom we are compelled toward absolute honesty, one person whose good opinion of us becomes a substitute for the broader opinion of the world.

And I am, I fear, the unfortunate victim of a sense of responsibility. Put me in charge and I try to accomplish the ends to which the office was allegedly created. I guess I suffer from an impoverishment of the sociopathic spirit necessary to go big time.

The room was filled with books. It looked like a wave of books had swept in and left tidal pools behind.