Bloody Rose Quotes

“Her smiles were shorter. Her laugh was louder. She became distracted at times, and would stare at nothing with a look of shattered sorrow that passed like a cloud the moment someone spoke her name. She loved less quickly, but more fiercely, and made certain that those she cared for knew it well. Sometimes she wept when it snowed.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Some people knew how to kill a conversation. Cura, on the other hand, could make it wish it had never been born.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“You didn’t get to be the villain of one story, she supposed, unless you were the hero of another.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“We slept beside them, fought beside them, bled beside them. We trusted them to watch our backs and save our asses – which they did, time and time again. And somewhere out there, between one gig and the next, something changed. We woke up one day and realized that home was no longer behind us. That our families were with us all along. We looked around at these miscreants, these motley crews, and knew in our hearts there was nowhere we’d rather be than by their side.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“It’s not enough to survive what we do, Tam. We must also endure it.” “What’s the difference?” she asked. “One concerns the body, the other the mind. Every battle has a cost,” he said quietly. “Even the ones we win.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Most people, she figured, sized up the truth when it came knocking, decided they didn’t much like the look of it, and shut the door in its face.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Gods fuck me,” said Roderick, managing the impressive feat of swearing and praying at the same time.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“I think it may have pierced his heart.”

“The heart is on this side,” Rose pointed out.

“Is it?” The wizard frowned and placed a hand on his own breast. “Gods, you might be right.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Hubris, man. It’s killed more heroes than monsters ever did.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“You’re a legend now, girl, and legends are like rolling stones: Once they get going, it’s best to stay out of their way.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“The world is big, the young are restless, and girls just want to have fun.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“...evil thrives on division. It stokes the embers of pride and prejudice until they become an inferno that might one day devour us all.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“What’s the matter with you? I’m all for a little brooding—believe me, I do it better than most—but there’s brooding, and then there’s being a total sack of dicks.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Death or glory,” she said. “Death or glory,” they echoed. “But preferably glory,”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“I had a cat named Astra. Spiteful creature! And vicious.” He whistled. “I swear, it once killed a bird and left it on my doorstep in the morning.” Brune shrugged. “So what? Lots of cats—” “It was an eagle,” Moog finished. The shaman nodded appreciatively and poured himself a drink.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Funny, Tam thought, how different a thing could seem at a distance—how beautiful, despite the ugly truth. Was it worth it, she wondered, to look closer? To examine something, or someone, if doing so risked changing your perception of them forever after? She was young enough to think the answer was yes, but too young to know if she was right.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“There is nothing, I think, so wasteful—or so pointlessly tragic—as a battle that should never have been fought in the first place.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“We were giants, once.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Another lie. But lies, as her uncle Bran was fond of saying, were like a cup of Kaskar whiskey: If you’re in for one, you’re in for a dozen.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“But then Rose pointed toward the woman’s feet. “You dropped your ear,” she said. And Astra—who’d been an empress, then a goddess, and whose dark sorcery now threatened to snuff out every soul in Grandual—looked down. Like an idiot.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“The gesture was, for the most part, greatly appreciated—except by a minotaur who stared at his helping in open disgust. “What is this, beef? I can’t eat this! Have you got a salad or something?” “No, I haven’t got a fucking salad,” said Roderick. The minotaur stared flatly between the bars of his cage. “Be a lot cooler if you did.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Does he have ears like a bunny, too?” “He does, yes.” For once the druin didn’t bridle at the association. “But his are droopy, because he is very old.” Cura found a smirk and slapped it on. “You know what else droops when it gets old?” “What?” Wren chirped. “Yes, please,” said Freecloud dryly. “Tell my five-year-old daughter what else droops when it gets old.” “Oh … um …” Cura wilted under the druin’s glare. “Flowers?”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Even when she and her father were at odds—when something one of them said wounded the other deeper than intended—she had always known that he loved her.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“… a woman cuts, hacks, slashes, and strikes – a whirling storm of fire and steel. Born in shadow, her destiny eclipsed by the brightest of stars. What else can she be but a comet, burning bright enough to draw every eye as she streaks toward some unfathomable fate?”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“What about Rose and Freecloud?” Tam asked. “Don’t expect we’ll see much of them today,” said the shaman with an exaggerated wink. “Okay.” “If you know what I mean,” he added, winking again. “I do,” Tam assured him. “Because they’re having—” “Bye,” she said. “—sex,” Brune finished, but she was already headed for the stairs.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“his broad face had the look of leather chewed to scrap by a starving dog.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Solitude can do troubling things to a mind.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Are all of us broken? Tam wondered. Each of us scarred in some way by our fathers, our mothers, our harsh and heartless pasts?”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“Conthas burned to the ground. Apparently, this is a regular occurrence. Every few decades or so a fire goes unchecked and razes the entire city to ash. The locals think of it as a time of renewal. A chance to start over, to sweep away the old and build something new.

New taverns, for instance. New pubs, new scratch-dens; new gambling holes and fighting pits. New ale-houses, dice-houses, tap-houses, and whore-houses. From what I understand, Conthas is like some drug-addled, sex-crazed, booze-swilling phoenix that refuses to stay dead.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose

“No, I haven’t got a fucking salad,” said Roderick. The minotaur stared flatly between the bars of his cage. “Be a lot cooler if you did.”
― Nicholas Eames, Bloody Rose