The Empire's Ruin Quotes

“Life is an unwinnable fight, Gwenna Sharpe. If ends are all that matter, then we are all fools and failures.”
― Brian Staveley, The Empire's Ruin

“Human minds are built to see a world of objects, but you are not an object, Gwenna. You are a process. You are the change taking place inside you. The woman at the end of this conversation will not be the woman who began it. The Gwenna who wakes up in the morning will not be the same Gwenna who went to sleep. It is impossible to fix a person in time. I could not pin you like a butterfly to a board any more than I could pin down a piece of music. Your essence lies in your unfolding.”
― Brian Staveley, The Empire's Ruin

“It was dark back there,” she said. “Dark,” Mouse said mournfully. She nodded. “Dark as fuck.” “As a simile,” Stupid opined, “I’m not sure that makes sense.”
― Brian Staveley, The Empire's Ruin

“There is room to improve, but the most important thing is that you are alive. The dead, after all, face grave impediments in the bettering of their skills.”
― Brian Staveley, The Empire's Ruin

“It was an animal failure not to imagine a moment beyond the present,”
― Brian Staveley, The Empire's Ruin