Scott Lynch: Trending quotes

“You're my favorite complication.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

“Nobody admires anyone else without qualification. If they do they’re after an image, not a person.”

The Republic of Thieves

“I thought we were celebrating being richer and cleverer than everyone else!”

Interlude “Striking Sparks” section 6 (p. 247)
Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013)

“If you put Durant's brains in a thimble full of water they'd look like a ship lost in the middle of the sea.”

Variant: To us — richer and cleverer than everyone else!
Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“The only person who gets away with Locke Lamora games—” “—is Locke Lamora—”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“For Calo, Galdo, and Bug”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“It had the expression common to all kittens, that of a tyrant in the becoming.”

The Lies of Locke Lamora

“They’ll be fine, and wiser for the experience. Young minds are brittle. Oldsters, now, we’ve had some disappointments. We’ve set aside the notion that we’re the center of the universe, so our minds bend with strain instead of meeting it head-on.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 11 “All Else, Truth” section 9 (p. 528)

“Better to say nothing and be thought a fool,” said Amarelle, “than to interfere in the business of wizards and remove all doubt.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 4 “Across the Amathel” section 1 (p. 184)

Scott Lynch

In George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (eds.) Rogues (p. 245)
Short fiction, A Year and a Day in Old Theradane (2014)

“As for history, we are living in its ruins. And as for biographies, we are living with the consequences of all the decisions ever made in them. I tend not to read them for pleasure. It‘s not unlike carefully scrutinizing the map when one has already reached the destination.”

“By rights he was still outrunning his age, still ahead of most men nearing threescore years, but he knew deep in his heart that there would never be any way of running fast enough.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 2 “Requin” section 4 (pp. 100-101)

““My responsibility was to tell you the truth, not wrap you in swaddling clothes.” She raised her hood again, half-veiling her face in shadow. “Nor protect you from your own badly aimed temper.””

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 5 “On a Clockwork River” section 4 (p. 253)

““What happened wasn’t fair!”
“Fair? You mean to claim with a straight face that you buy into that heresy, my boy?””

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 9 “The Five-Year Game: Reasonable Doubt” section 2 (p. 551)

“I make it a point never to trust men with weapons to my windpipe.”

Interlude “The Boy Who Chased Red Dresses” section 1 (p. 115)
The Republic of Thieves (2013)

““What’s your hand look like?“
“A parched desert… How’s yours?“
“A wasteland of bitter frustration.“”

Prologue “A Strained Conversation” (p. 2)
Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007)

“You have confused me with someone who knows what’s going on.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 1 “Little Games” section 1 (p. 7)

Scott Lynch

Source: Short fiction, A Year and a Day in Old Theradane (2014), p. 251

“Time’s a river, Locke, and we’ve always drifted farther down it than we think.”

“I never would’ve thought—“
“Don’t think,” said Locke. “I’m paid to do that for you.”

Interlude “Up the River” section 2 (p. 392)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006)

““Let’s be obvious. Me brute, you weasel.”
“Agreed. You brute, me charming mastermind.””

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 6 “The Five-Year Game: Change of Venue” section 1 (p. 311)