Fools and Mortals Quotes

“Silence. We like it when an audience is silent, when no one coughs, no one shuffles, no one cracks a nut, or uncorks an ale bottle with a sudden hiss. Silence means the play is working, and we have the audience in our power. To a player, that breathless silence is better than applause, and that morning in the great hall my audience was silent.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Fools and Mortals

“When men do evil and claim that they are doing God’s work, then they are at their most dangerous.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Fools and Mortals

“If there's one thing a Puritan fears, it's a woman.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Fools and Mortals

“Because when he returns, Richard, he would be the biggest man in town. He wants revenge on his childhood. He wants the respect of the town. Saint Paul tells us that when we were children we spoke as children, we understood and thought as children but when we become men we put away childish things, but I’m not so sure we ever do put them away. I think the childish things linger on, and your brother craves what he wanted as a child, the respect of his home town”
― Bernard Cornwell, Fools and Mortals

“Masques are mere pious recitals," he said scathingly, "devised to make the audience feel inspired with unending speeches about chastity, nobility, bravery, and other such nonsense. They're enchanting to look at, but dreary beyond belief to hear.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Fools and Mortals

“What had the Reverend Venables said? That promises in the playhouse were like kisses on May Day. I had just been kissed.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Fools and Mortals

“I learned that money was the object of life, and I wanted money. I wanted the servants, the fine clothes, the respect in the street, and a horse of my own. I wanted to ride into Stratford and spit on Thomas Butler and his sour wife, to spit on all those who had told me to work harder, work harder, work harder. To wok harder for what? To become a carpenter? a cobbler? A glove maker or a ditch-digger? To be someone who was forever pulling my forelock? To be always bowing, snivelling and flattering? And so I began to thieve, and I found I was good at it.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Fools and Mortals

“Everything's bigger better, or worse in London. That's just the way of it.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Fools and Mortals