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Steven Erikson Quotes
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Steven Erikson is the pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian novelist, who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist.

His best-known work is the ten-volume fantasy series Malazan Book of the Fallen, which by 2012 had sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide. SF Site has called the series "the most significant work of epic fantasy since Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant," and Fantasy Book Review described it as "the best fantasy series of recent times." Fellow author Glen Cook has called the series a masterwork of the imagination that may be the high water mark of the epic fantasy genre. In his treatise written for The New York Review of Science Fiction, fellow author Stephen R. Donaldson has also praised Erikson for his approach to the fantasy genre, the subversion of classical tropes, the complex characterizations, the social commentary — pointing explicitly to parallels between the fictional Letheras Economy and the US Economy — and has referred to him as "an extraordinary writer", comparing him to the likes of Joseph Conrad, Henry James, William Faulkner, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. In an interview with sffworld.com, Erikson acknowledged that he originally doubted the series would become "mainstream", and was subsequently surprised at how successful the series has been. He also noted how people "either hate the series or love it".

✵ 7. October 1959   •   Other names სტივენ ერიკსონი, استیون اریکسون
Steven Erikson photo
Steven Erikson: 136   quotes 5   likes

Steven Erikson Quotes

“Memories belong in the soil, in stone, in wind. They are the land's unseen meaning, such that touches the soul of all who would look — truly look — upon it. Touches, in faintest whisper, old, almost shapeless echoes — to which a mortal life adds its own.”

Steven Erikson book Memories of Ice

Memories of Ice (2001)

Life , Soul , Memory

“Should you ever outrun the guilt within your past, Sorceress, you will have outrun your soul. When it finds you again it will kill you.”

Steven Erikson book Gardens of the Moon

Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 9 (p. 292)

Soul , Past

“To grieve is the gift of the living — a gift so many of our kin have long lost”

Steven Erikson book Memories of Ice

Memories of Ice (2001)

“In the empty eyes of this child, he’d seen the withering of his own soul. The reflection had been unblemished, with no imperfections to challenge the truth of what he saw.”

Steven Erikson book Gardens of the Moon

Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 11 (p. 341)

Truth , Soul

“Children were meant to be gifts. The physical manifestation of love between a man and a woman. And for that love all manner of sacrifice could be borne.”

Steven Erikson book Memories of Ice

Memories of Ice (2001)

Love , Children

“The power he commanded insisted upon subjects. Strength was ever relative, and he could not dominate without the company of the dominated.”

Steven Erikson book Gardens of the Moon

Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 20 (p. 555)

“Hunger for vengeance poisoned the soul.”

Steven Erikson book Gardens of the Moon

Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 4 (p. 153)

Hunger , Soul

“You cannot fight unreason, and as these dead multitudes will tell you — are telling you right now — certitude is the enemy.”

Steven Erikson book The Bonehunters

The Bonehunters (2006)

Fight , Dead

“Discipline is as much facing the enemy within as the enemy before you; for without critical judgement, the weapon you wield delivers — and let us not be coy here — naught but murder. And its first victim is the moral probity of your cause.”

Steven Erikson book The Bonehunters

The Bonehunters (2006)

“"Indeed Bugg. is it because, do you think, at the human core, we are naught but liars and cheats?"
"Probably."
"With no hope of ever overcoming our instinctive nastiness?"
"Hard to say. How have we done so far?"”

Steven Erikson book Midnight Tides

Midnight Tides (2004)

Hope , Thinking , Cheating

“Art is the language of the tormented, but the world is blind to that, for ever blind.”

Steven Erikson book Forge of Darkness

Forge of Darkness (2013)

World , Art

“Killers among your kind, among my kind, are just that — the savagery of beasts mated with intelligence, or what passes for intelligence. They dwell in a murky world, sir, confuse and fearful, stained dark with envy and malice. And in the end, they die as they lived. Frightened and alone, with every memory of power revealed as illusion, as farce.”

Steven Erikson book Toll the Hounds

Toll the Hounds (2008)

World , Fear , Intelligence , Memory

“History meant nothing, because the only continuity was human stupidity. Oh, there were moments of greatness, of bright deeds, but how long did the light of such glory last? From one breath to the next, aye, and no more than that. No more than that. As for the rest, kick through the bones and wreckage for they are what remain, what lasts until all turn to dust.”

Steven Erikson book Toll the Hounds

Toll the Hounds (2008)

Stupidity , History , Light

“With ever greater frequency they annihilate themselves, for success breeds contempt for those very qualities that purchased it.”

Steven Erikson book House of Chains

House of Chains (2002)

Success

“all these Dark Lords intent on creating wastelands packed with enslaved victims … for what?”

Steven Erikson

SF Site Interview http://www.sfsite.com/06a/se82.htm

“This swirl of stars,' Draconus suddenly said, 'marks the plunge of light into darkness. These stars, they are distant suns, shihing their light down upon distant, unknown worlds. Worlds, perhaps, little different from this one. Or vastly different. It hardly matters. Each star swirls its path towards the centre, and at that centre is death - the death of light, the death of time itself.”

Steven Erikson book Forge of Darkness

Forge of Darkness (2013)

Death , World , Star , Light

“Peace did not serve order; order served peace, and when order became godlike, sacrosant and inviolate, then the peace thus won became a prison, and those who sought their freedom became enemies to order, and in the elimination of such enemies, peace was lost.”

Steven Erikson book Forge of Darkness

Forge of Darkness (2013)

Peace , Freedom

““What do you mean by a tyrant?”
“One whose blood was poisoned by the ambition to rule over others.””

Steven Erikson book Gardens of the Moon

Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 10 (p. 309)

“The Empress expects obedience of her servants, and demands loyalty.”

Steven Erikson book Gardens of the Moon

“Any reasonable ruler would have the expectation and the demand the other way round.”
Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 3 (p. 90)

Loyalty

“Then, does everyone lives in fear?”

Steven Erikson book Forge of Darkness

The firelight barely reached the huge man standing beside Raskan, and the deep voice that came from that vague shape sounded loose, unguarded. 'I would say, most of the time, yes. Fear that our opinion might be chalanged. Fear that our way of seeing things might be called ignorant, self-serving, or indeed evil. Fear for our persons. Fear for our future, our fate. Our moment of death. Fear of failing in all that we set out to achieve. Fear of being forgotten.'
Forge of Darkness (2013)

Fear

“What do you mean by a tyrant?”

Steven Erikson book Gardens of the Moon

“One whose blood was poisoned by the ambition to rule over others.”
Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 10 (p. 309)