Scott Lynch: Trending quotes

“When you can't cheat the game, you'd best find a means to cheat the players.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves

“If you want to write a negative review, don't tickle me gently with your aesthetic displeasure about my work. Unleash the goddamn Kraken."

[on, July 17, 2012]”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Scott Lynch

“There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.”

“Difficult" and "impossible" are cousins often mistaken for one another, with very little in common.”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006), Chapter 4 “At the Court of Capa Barsavi” section 5 (p. 219)

“A boy may be as disagreeable as he pleases, but when a girl refuses to crap sunshine on command, the world mutters darkly about her moods.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 2 “Requin” section 3 (p. 93)
Context: “I say again, impossible.”
“And I correct you again. Difficult. ‘Difficult’ and ‘impossible’ are cousins often mistaken for one another, with very little in common.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves

“Nice bird, asshole!”

“You can’t help being young, but it’s past time that you stopped being stupid.”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“We’re a different sort of thief here, Lamora. Deception and misdirection are our tools. We don’t believe in hard work when a false face and a good line of bullshit can do so much more.”

Interlude “Locke Stays for Dinner” section 1 (p. 121)
Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006)

“Know something? I'd lay even odds that between the people following us and the people hunting us, we've become this city's principle means of employment. Tal Verrar's entire economy is now based on.”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“Any man can fart in a closed room and say that he commands the wind”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

“Stand aside, and try not to catch fire if I shed sparks of genius.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

“If reassurances could dull pain, nobody would ever go to the trouble of pressing grapes.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves

“Quit being so hard on yourself. We are what we are; we love what we love. We don't need to justify it to anyone… not even to ourselves.”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“Throwing blondes at Locke Lamora was not unlike throwing lettuce at sharks.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves

“I don't expect life to make sense," he said after a few moments, "but it could certainly be pleasant if it would stop kicking us in the balls.”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“Worst of all, the inner vault is guarded by a live dragon, attended by fifty naked women armed with poisoned spears, each of them sworn to die in Requin's service. All redheads.
-You're just making that up, Jean.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 5 “The Five-Year Game: Starting Position” section 1 (p. 250)
Context: Locke put his head in his hands and sighed.
“I don’t expect life to make sense,” he said after a few moments, “but it would certainly be pleasant if it would stop kicking us in the balls.”

“You simply collapsed, sir. In layman's terms, your body revoked its permission for you to continue heaping abuse upon it.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

“So that makes us robbers of robbers," said Bug, "who pretend to be robbers working for a robber of other robbers.”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“What kind of knife is this?” Locke held a rounded buttering utensil up for Chains’ inspection. “It’s all wrong. You couldn’t kill anyone with this.”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora