Sam Sykes > Quotes

“See, to appreciate a woman you have to appreciate a woman’s right to change. And to appreciate a woman’s right to change, you have to realize that she’ll do it with maddening frequency, usually just to confuse you so that you’ll never see her coming when she decides to rip your throat out and drink your blood.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Half-drunken poetry is the most honest kind of poetry. Too slurred to be eloquent, not slurred enough to be witless.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“How can you be so sure?” Lenk asked. “That there’s no plan?” “Because,” Mocca said as he eyed the bottle, “I can’t imagine any God would be boring enough to want to know how everything ends.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Now, it’s certainly not true for *every* woman, but the ones I have had the good fortune to know in my life have all followed this rule.
If you need a favor, you bring her flowers.
If you need her forgiveness, you bring her jewelry.
And if you need both, you bring her a book.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“No one ever gets the death they want,” I replied. “Just the one they deserve.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“Courageous read a lot of books. That’s probably why he was so angry all the time.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“People were noisome, demanding, judgmental. Books gave everything and asked nothing more than to be taken care of.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“Buy my book.”
― Sam Sykes

“Because justice isn’t for the victim, is it? It’s not for the girl crying every night or the boy burying his father. It’s for the killer, it’s for the judge, it’s for the shits like you who want to feel like you’re above it all, like forgiving a killer makes up for not being able to protect his victims.” I spat on the floor. “A man kills and you fawn over him and wonder what went wrong. A man dies and you shrug and step over the corpse.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“Regardless, my most horrific discovery has been that society is nothing more than a series of carefully calculated choices based solely around economics.”
― Sam Sykes, Black Halo

“The best defense to inquiry was semi-coherent rants and accusations.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“Just because something is religious does not necessarily make it insane.” She studied the writing and hummed. “Though this particular something is decidedly fucking nuts.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“While violence was almost certainly the solution, Lenk knew he needed to apply it selectively.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“If you're lucky, you meet a lot of people you like enough to touch them. If you're really lucky, you meet a few who you like enough to let them touch you back. But if you're very luck, you meet that one person who touches you in a way that makes you feel like you're standing up a little straighter, like you're breathing a little clearer, like you were walking hunched over your whole life and you didn't even know it.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“Hold that thought. This sounds like the kind of conversation I’ll need pants for.” It”
― Sam Sykes, An Affinity for Steel: The Aeons' Gate Trilogy

“Feathers glittering the color of amethyst against the dying light of the day, long tails trailing in the breeze like kites, wings shimmering with every beat. They looked so oblivious to their majesty, like flying and painting the sky with purple was just something they did, rather than something that made my knees shake.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“There are others, but the end result is that most Vagrants showing up where you live will ruin your day. Not me, of course. A girl like me tends to ruin your whole week.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“Crime and religion are the only two things that people are willing to both die for and kill over.”
― Sam Sykes, An Affinity for Steel: The Aeons' Gate Trilogy

“Professionals knew that the most dangerous men in the world were accountants.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“You wear ignorance like a crown as you feast upon a thickheaded fantasy of lies,”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“But courage was a flower, something that blossomed and wilted swiftly. And Gariath was a cold snap in winter.”
― Sam Sykes, A City Stained Red

“A new world isn't worth it."
"It is, Sal. A hundred worlds are worth it."..."I would burn all of them down and build them back up, every time."
"Until I found one that didn't hurt you anymore.”
― Sam Sykes, Ten Arrows of Iron

“She always preferred paper to people. People were noisome, demanding, judgmental. Books gave everything and asked nothing more than to be taken care of. I found her priorities charming.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“Now, it's certainly not true for every woman, but the ones I have had the good fortune to know in my life have all followed this rule.
If you need a favor, you bring her flowers.
If you need her forgiveness, you bring her jewelry.
And if you need both, you bring her a book.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“The song of lightning followed me, an angry, screeching verse torn from twenty ragged throats.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“Come, squib, sit with Kudj. Engage in beautifully awkward hospitality.” He reached into the pot with a large finger and stirred whatever was inside. “Stew not hot. Fire not big enough. Squib is welcome to some anyway.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“People are wounds. They cut and they hurt and they bleed. Some hurt for a little while and go away. Some don’t stop hurting until you make them.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“The loudest sound in the world is a man of faith beginning to doubt. And over it, I couldn’t hear anything else.”
― Sam Sykes, Seven Blades in Black

“The meaning, Captain,” the Quill said softly, “is that death does not stop life.”
― Sam Sykes, The City Stained Red

“I just saw riches. But Vishera saw love, saw tenderness, saw all the care she had poured into making this manor her home. And in her mind, I suppose that's all it was: a home. Her home. One she would do anything to protect.

And when put that way, was I right to stop her?

I don't know. You want philosophical questions, go ask a priest.

I was here to stab a bitch.”
― Sam Sykes, Shy Knives