Scott Lynch Quotes page 2

“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

“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)

““When I get this door open, you’re dead, Jean!“
“When you get that door open? I look forward to many long years of life, then.“”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 5 “The Five-Year Game: Starting Position” section 2 (p. 254)

“I have always found the presumptions of others to be the best possible disguise—haven’t you?”

Reminiscence “The Capa of Vel Virazzo” section 5 (p. 65)
Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007)

““That’s a sweet piece,“ said Jean, briefly forgetting to be aggravated. “You didn’t snatch that off a street.“
“No,“ said Locke, before taking another deep draught of the warm water in the decanter. “I got it from the neck of the governor’s mistress.“
“You can’t be serious.“
“In the governor’s manor.“
“Of all the—“
“In the governor’s bed.“
“Damned lunatic!“
“With the governor sleeping next to her… It is possible,“ said Locke with a sheepish grin, “that I have been slightly too bold.“”

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006), Chapter 15 “Spiderbite” section 5 (p. 636)

“Damn it, when will you learn that refusing to admit you’ve lost isn’t the same as winning?”

Reminiscence “The Capa of Vel Virazzo” section 6 (pp. 70-71)
Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007)

“Only gods-damned fools die for lines drawn on maps.”

Interlude “Striking Sparks” section 2 (p. 233)
The Republic of Thieves (2013)

““Thank you very much, sir,” said Beth with nothing resembling actual gratitude.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 11 “All Else, Truth” section 5 (p. 513)

“Sabetha threw her own shoes and costume components on the tiles near the bath. She retained only her black hose and a dressing gown. Locke did his best to look like he wasn’t staring, and she did an admirable job of pretending she wasn’t encouraging him.”

Prologue “The Minder” section 5 (p. 10)
The Republic of Thieves (2013)

“I’m sure we can communicate. I speak fluent hatchet.”

Interlude “Death Masks” section 8 (p. 639)
The Republic of Thieves (2013)

““You need money that badly?”
“As a tool, certainly. Its application is simple and universally effective.””

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006), Chapter 10 “Teeth Lessons” section 2 (p. 457)

“I sometimes think that ‘friend’ is just a word I use for all the people I haven't murdered yet.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 4 “Across the Amathel” section 3 (p. 190)

Scott Lynch

Source: Short fiction, A Year and a Day in Old Theradane (2014), p. 258

“The sun is up, and all that money out there won’t steal itself.”

“Are you really that arrogant, that logic is as optional as a fashion accessory for you?”

Interlude “The Undrowned Girl” section 1 (p. 69)
The Republic of Thieves (2013)

“Enlightenment! When it comes, it comes like a brick to the head, doesn’t it?”

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

“When you’re a priest, people tend to see the robe rather than the man.”

Interlude “Locke Stays for Dinner” section 1 (p. 125)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006)

“Commonly thought,’ you say? Many things are commonly thought, but perhaps not commonly thought all the way through.”

Interlude “The Half-Crown War” section 1 (p. 414)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006)

““Yes, I like it a lot, it’s all worth having to bathe, even!”
“Hmmm,” said Chains. “You live long enough for your stones to drop, then tell me if bathing is really such a hardship when the young women around you have bosoms that are more than theoretical.”
“What? When my what?”
“Never mind. That subject will be sufficiently confusing in its own good time.””

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006), Chapter 9 “A Curious Tale for Countess Amberglass” section 1 (p. 435)

“”Is this man, ah, senile?”
”He’s absolutely competent,” she answered coldly.
”I assure you I am,” roared Cordo. Anger changed his countenance utterly. ”And I will not be put off from business by assassins in my own bedroom! Now, you will either kill me immediately or negotiate the price of my release!”

Interlude “The Boy Who Chased Red Dresses” section 1 (pp. 115-116)
The Republic of Thieves (2013)

“You’re trying to be charming again,” she said softly, “but I do not choose to be charmed, Locke Lamora.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 16 “Settling Accounts” section 3 (p. 712)

“In my dreams I sign chits and file papers,” Nikoros muttered. “Then I awake to sign real chits and file real papers. I imagine my grave marker will be carved as a writing desk. ‘Here lies Nikoros Via Lupa, wifeless and heirless, but gods how he could alphabetize!’”

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

“Nikoros, your job this afternoon is to say yes to anything that comes out of my mouth. The more you rehearse this, the sooner it’ll become a smooth mechanical process allowing no time for painful reflection. Can you practice for me?”
“Yes.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 10 “The Five-Year Game: Final Approaches” section 5 (p. 582)

“How you deal with it I must and will leave to you, not out of despair or resignation but in deference to my conscience, that broken clock which I believe is now chiming one of its occasional right hours. I will not question your reasons. It is enough for you to tell me that you wish to keep this distance between us, and it will always be enough. Know that a single word will bring me running, but unless and until it pleases you to give it, I will expect nothing, force nothing, and contrive nothing contrary to your wishes.
I desire you as deeply as I ever have, but I understand that the fervor of a desire is irrelevant to its justice. I want your heart on merit, in mutual trust, or not at all, because I cannot bear to see you made uneasy by me. Not for all the world would I do so again, and I leave it to you to tell me how to proceed, if and when you can, if and when you will.”

“You’re a natural.”
Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 5 “The Five-Year Game: Starting Position” section 7 (p. 275)

““There were difficulties.”
“Oh,” she said, “so you’re the man whose life develops complications! I’ve so longed to meet you; the rest of us here in this world have it much too easy, I’m afraid.””

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 10 “The Five-Year Game: Final Approaches” section 11 (p. 605)

“Next came the sort of kiss that banished the world to distant background noise and seemed to last a month.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 6 “The Five-Year Game: Change of Venue” section 8 (p. 337)

“I’m losing my taste for subtlety as fast as I’m depleting my supply.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 10 “The Five-Year Game: Final Approaches” section 13 (p. 610)

“Most of us find it starkly ludicrous that the height of all possible ambition, to the ungifted, must be to drape oneself in crowns and robes.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 14 “Scourging the Sea of Brass” section 1 (p. 640)

““Liquor does this? Even after you’re sober?”
“A cruel joke, isn’t it? The gods put a price tag on everything, it seems.””

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 4 “Across the Amathel” section 3 (p. 191)

“In time, you’ll come to understand that a state like ours cannot afford to offer up a show of weakness for honesty’s sake; Duke Nicovante charges me with vouchsafing his security, not his conscience.”

Interlude “The Last Mistake” section 1 (p. 179)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006)

“I’m going to give you a thorough examination. This may cause some discomfort, but don’t complain. I won’t be listening.”

Epilogue, “Falselight” section 2 (p. 715)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006)

“We already know how too—”
“I don’t care what you think you know, Kosta. Until further notice, we’re gonna presume that you’re too dumb to count to one.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 1 “Things Get Worse” section 8 (p. 47)

“I can’t live forever. Each time something like this affair lands in my lap, I suddenly recall that I don’t want to live forever.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 6 “Balance of Trades” section 2 (p. 291)

“People die when they get hanged. It’s why they hang them!”

Epilogue, “Falselight” section 2 (p. 716)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006)

“I find it best to make corpses of complications.”

Prologue “The Minder” section 8 (p. 19)
The Republic of Thieves (2013)

““Here's to charming losers, I suppose.“
“If only we knew where to find some.“”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 13 “Points of Decision” section 2 (p. 587)

“I’m not without my sympathies, Lamora. They just don’t necessarily reside with you.”

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007), Chapter 1 “Little Games” section 3 (p. 14)