The City Stained Red Quotes

“See, to appreciate a woman you have to appreciate a woman’s right to change. And to appreciate a woman’s right to change, you have to realize that she’ll do it with maddening frequency, usually just to confuse you so that you’ll never see her coming when she decides to rip your throat out and drink your blood.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Half-drunken poetry is the most honest kind of poetry. Too slurred to be eloquent, not slurred enough to be witless.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“How can you be so sure?” Lenk asked. “That there’s no plan?” “Because,” Mocca said as he eyed the bottle, “I can’t imagine any God would be boring enough to want to know how everything ends.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“The best defense to inquiry was semi-coherent rants and accusations.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Professionals knew that the most dangerous men in the world were accountants.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“While violence was almost certainly the solution, Lenk knew he needed to apply it selectively.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“The meaning, Captain,” the Quill said softly, “is that death does not stop life.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Come, squib, sit with Kudj. Engage in beautifully awkward hospitality.” He reached into the pot with a large finger and stirred whatever was inside. “Stew not hot. Fire not big enough. Squib is welcome to some anyway.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“They aren’t destroying everything, then,” she said. “Yes, how terribly blessed we must be.” Aturach laughed, extending his arms to the sky. “Thank you, O Wise Healer, for in Your infinite wisdom, You have decided to kill only most of the people in this city. Let all who doubt Your mercy hear my cry.” He cupped his hands over his mouth and screamed into the night sky. “It could have been worse, ingrates! Fall to your knees and be grateful that the Gods killed only half of your families!” “You’re not helping.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“She walks with the knowledge that, no matter what, she's not one of you. She loves you, but not your people. You love her, but not the life she wants. you long for a world where you can walk with her and she with you and know that you will never need anything else.
I can give you, and everyone, a world like that. I ask you not to believe me... only to listen.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“But courage was a flower, something that blossomed and wilted swiftly. And Gariath was a cold snap in winter.”
― Sam Sykes, A City Stained Red

“Here’s the problem,” Dransun interrupted. “You’ve got no colors and no affiliation, but you’ve got a sword. So you’ve got the means to kill people, but not the means to be held responsible.” He sniffed. “Parents?” “What?” “Any parents?” “Both dead.” “Hometown?” “Burned to the ground.” “Allies? Compatriots? Friends?” “Just the ones I find on the road. And in a tavern. And, this one time, hunched over a”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“To them, suffering came from neither loss nor tragedy, but from desire and denial. To them, suffering was no famine or drought. Suffering was a belly not yet full to bursting, a mouth that drank water instead of wine. To them, suffering was something temporary, to be overcome, to be put aside and placed on a mantel with all their other things made of metal.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“To mend the big wounds, sometimes you must mend the small ones, she thought as she poured tea into a copper mug. And sometimes, the small ones are so small you can’t even see them. A wise man had once said that. Well, a wise woman, anyway. Well, she had said it. Thought it, really. Just now, even. But it certainly sounded wise to her.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Trying to figure out how to best manage his time between doing a task for imbeciles and avoiding imminent and painful death by protocol. I”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“I promise,” he growled, “to kill only as many people as can reasonably be expected to help.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Some things were so uncertain that the logical mind could not abide them. Some things were so uncertain that they must be made certain. And if those things happened to owe a person a lot of money…”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“You’re buying the next one,” he said. “The man drinking shouldn’t consume more than the man paying. It offends Silf.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Envy, it was often said among shicts, was the mother of human invention,”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Kudj wonder if perhaps Mother right. Kudj wonder if civility only as strong as weakest person participating.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red