Scott Lynch Quotes

I don’t want you to agree with me; I want you to use your misplaced acorn of a brain before the squirrel comes looking for it again.

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.

Time went by with all the speed of a sleepless night.

“We met five years ago.“ Jean scratched his beard. “On a sea voyage. We became business partners out of sheer boredom. Since then we‘ve been inseparable.“
“Except that my plan calls for me to be plotting your death.“
“Yes, but I don‘t know that, do I? Boon companion! I suspect nothing.“
“Chump! I can hardly wait to see you get yours!“

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.

Some mysteries are better off with their throats slit.

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.

Master Kosta...What a pleasure! Selendri tells me you’ve expressed an interest in getting killed.

“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.“

“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.“

“You needed a bath,“ Jean interrupted. “You were covered in self-pity.“

The trouble with creating military dictators, Locke reflected, was getting rid of them after the immediate crisis was past.

“I suspect that drink has made you impulsive.“
“Drink makes me see funny; the gods made me impulsive.“

“What do you have to say to that?“
“Oh, very little, to be sure, Master Kosta. It’s so hard to think, overawed as I am with the sublime genius of your plan.“
“That bears some vague resemblance to sarcasm.“
“God forfend,“ said Jean. “You wound me! Your inexpressible criminal virtues have triumphed again, as inevitably as the tides come and go. I cast myself at your feet and beg for absolution. Yours is the genius that nourishes the heart of the world.“
“And now you’re—“
“If only there was a leper handy,“ interrupted Jean, "so you could lay your hands on and magically heal him.“

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