{"author":"Steven Erikson","author_id":"Steven+Erikson","total_quotes":68,"quotes":[{"text":"The stars, they are as the sun. Each star. Every star. And those spheres- they are worlds, realms, each one different yet the same.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["astronomy","science"],"id":128,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"I have seen the face of sorrowShe looks away in the distanceAcross all these bridgesFrom whence I cameAnd those spans, trussed and archedHold up our lives as we go back againTo how we thought thenTo how we thought we thought thenI have seen sorrow's face,But she is ever turned awayAnd her words leave me blindHer eyes make me muteI do not understand what she says to meI do not know if to obeyOr attempt a flood of tearsI have seen her faceShe does not speakShe does not weepShe does not know meFor I am but a stone fitted in placeOn the bridge where she walksLay of the BridgeburnersToc the Younger.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["bridgeburners","poem","sorrow"],"id":8412,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"People of civilized countenance made much of exposing the soft underbellies of their psyche - effete and sensitive were the brands of finer breeding. It was easy for them, safe, and that was the whole point, after all: a statement of coddled opulence that burned the throats of the poor more than any ostentatious show of wealth.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["book-fo-the-fallen","deadhouse-gates","insightful","malazan","malazan-book-of-the-fallen","poverty","social-norms","social-stagnation","social-status","steven-erikson","survival"],"id":17713,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"...'Were hostages ever killed?'She shook her head. 'Not until the end. When everything...Fell apart. 'All it needs,',she said, memories clouding her mind, 'is the breaking of one rule, one law. A breaking that then no one calls to account. Once that happens, once the shock passes, every law shatters. Every rule of conduct, of proper behaviour, it all vanishes. Then the hounds inside each and everyone of us is unleashed. At that moment Withal' - she met his eyes, defiant against the grief she saw in them - 'we show our true selves. We are not beasts- we are something far worse. There deep inside us. You see it - the emptiness in the eyes, as horror upon horror is committed, and no one feels. No one feels a thing.' --Steven Erikson... Dust of Dreams.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["decorum","erikson","politics"],"id":18614,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"He fashioned an empire of sorts, bereft of cities yet plagued with the endless dramas of society, its pathetic victories and inevitable failures. The community of enslaved Imass thrived in this quagmire of pettiness. They even managed to convince themselves that they possessed freedom, a will of their own that could shape destiny. They elected champions. They tore down their champions once failure draped its shroud over them. They ran in endless circles and called it growth, emergence, knowledge. While over them all, a presence invisible to their eyes, Raest flexed his will. His greatest joy came when his slaves proclaimed him god – though they knew him not – and constructed temples to serve him and organized priesthoods whose activities mimicked Raest’s tyranny with such cosmic irony that the Jaghut could only shake his head.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["human-nature","humanity","religion"],"id":27641,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"Now get going. You'll find a way of calm through.'And you, Mael?'I'll drop in later. I've things for you to do, Withal. But for now,' he faced inland, 'I'm going to beat a god senseless.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["bugg","crippled-god","curse","lether","malazan","prayer","sword","tehol"],"id":29401,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"There's little value in seeking to find reasons for why people do what they do, or feel the way they feel. Hatred is a most pernicious thing, finding root in any kind of soil. It feeds on itself.' 'With words.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["hatred"],"id":32204,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"The Wickans know that the gift of power is never free. They know enough not to envy the chosen among them, for power is never a game, nor are glittering standards raised to glory and wealth. They disguise nothing in trappings, and so we all see what we'd rather not, that power is cruel, hard as iron and bone, and thrives on destruction. ~ Deadhouse Gates.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["politics"],"id":39472,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"Purest light will blind as surely as absolute darkness.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["darkness","light"],"id":39867,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"},{"text":"Eventually every man reaches a point where every memory is unwelcome.","author":"Steven Erikson","tags":["fantasy"],"id":43398,"author_id":"Steven+Erikson"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":68,"pages":7,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}