Jeff Salyards > Jeff's Quotes

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Scourge of the Betrayer is as harsh and profane as anything RichardK Morgan or Joe Abercrombie serves up. Fortunately, Saylards has the skills -and the humor - to pull it off. Snappy dialogue, political intrigue, shadycharacters, gripping action sequences, a poor guy that has no idea what he’sgotten himself into... Yeah, there’s a lot to like about this debut.”
― David Anthony Durham

“I'll tell you this much. Men think memories are like murals or statues or truth or whatever happened, never changes none. But that ain't so. They can capture the untruth of something, just as easy. They can change, especially as time leads to time.

(...)
To each man himself, his memories seems as solid and factual as a stone mosaic, an urn he could turn around and heft, a flower he could sniff. But when I go inside another, I don't see it or feel it like that. Everything is shimmery, shifting, like it's bathed in mist and shadow, like... like walking down the foggiest street you can think of, with everything looking not like itself at all.”
― Jeff Salyards, Scourge of the Betrayer

“Gurdinn ignored him, still speaking to the baron. “I would sooner soak my cock in honey and ask a bear not to bite than trust a Black Noose, my lord.”
Braylar clapped and said, “I wouldn’t have suspected you of such colorful wit, Captain Honeycock. You’re a man of surprising gifts.”
Gurdinn wheeled on him, hand on his sword. “Shut your mouth, right quick.”
― Jeff Salyards, Scourge of the Betrayer

“It is a ripper. I would be disappointed if it simply nuzzled them and showed its belly for a good rub.”
― Jeff Salyards, Veil of the Deserters

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.”
― Robert E. Howard, The Complete Chronicles of Conan

“Sleep, elusive as a ghost, plaintive as a widow, and as easy to hold as the wind.”
― Jeff Salyards

“The years cool passions for some men, neutralize poison, soften the edges of grief and rage and prejudice. But for others, they hold on even tighter to the things that burn their insides out regardless of the passage of time, or even in spite of it, as if to curse the very world itself.”
― Jeff Salyards, Chains of the Heretic

“One of the guards stepped forward, hand on the hilt of his sword. “I’ll be taking those weapons now, boys.” Braylar replied, “I’m afraid I can’t allow that. Assassinations are so very difficult as it is—unarmed, almost impossible.” It”
― Jeff Salyards, Scourge of the Betrayer

“You haven’t lived until you’ve grieved. Death, life, together, the same. And if you’ve only experienced life you’re only half-alive.”
― Jeff Salyards, Scourge of the Betrayer

“And then, suddenly, we broke free from the trees. The rolling plain beyond was almost overwhelming in its openness, especially lit by a brilliant, almost awful sunset, the sky never redder, every cloud seemingly blazing from within, suffused with fire and vengeance, roiling, churning, nothing but fury in every direction. Some poets spoke of red sunsets as things of sublime beauty, prefacing good fortune or romance, but they always seemed to be foretelling some bloodletting, murder, or tragedy writ large for all the world to see, and never more so than now.”
― Jeff Salyards, Veil of the Deserters

“Really, all we managed to do was to ride fast and not all die, but that itself felt as rewarding as routing the enemy, considering how quickly that trap closed around us. Despite my throbbing tongue, sweat pouring double time from every pore, and my heart racing faster than any horse’s, I couldn’t suppress a huge smile. Survival was the greatest prize of all. I wanted to yell, to cry, to drink, and yes, to whoop, loudly, maniacally. We’d lost men, we’d been bloodied and injured, but no matter what, we survived. And that felt as sweet and wonderful as anything I could imagine. I”
― Jeff Salyards, Chains of the Heretic