Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan > Quotes

“Ghouls love their eldritch mysterious stairwells descending infinitely into fucking shit-and-mushroom town.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“God’s shit,” says Aleena. “That’s your idea of a fucking short cut? Let’s save time by getting sodomised by magic worms?”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“From here, you see the heart of the old city, its palaces and churches, and towers reaching up like the hands of a man drowning, trying to break free of the warren of alleyways and hovels that surrounds them.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“Change is simultaneously a fast and a slow process. The great forces of history are slow-moving and unnoticed by those surrounded by them, visible only in hindsight where they appear inevitable.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“Ongent just keeps huffing and puffing up the steps, as if he's out for an afternoon constitutional and his only worry is getting to the top of this little hill, not getting robbed and left in a ditch.

She contemplates robbing him and leaving him in a ditch.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“All you have are stories, retold over and over, fading and changing with each retelling. And here is the sorry thing – few of the elves remember either, even those that were there. Memories become eclipsed by memories of memories, and the story becomes the only truth that remains. Sometimes, I think that is why we elves fade over time – we can no longer recall who we truly are, beneath all the masks and diversions, and so we become nothing more than thin veneers, easily discarded.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“Now, we turn to the gods – not for guidance or protection, but as experimental subjects. Deities, demons and other supernatural entities can be considered as self-perpetuating structures in the elemental chaos. They might be naturally accreting structures, or perhaps they were unconsciously shaped over many generations by blind faith. These self-perpetuating structures can channel elemental energy through congruent souls – or, to put it another way, saints manifest the sacred blessings of the gods.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“Idge says that there are moments when revolution is possible. Most of the time, we’re all – everyone, from the poorest beggar out there to the Patros on his golden throne – caught in the gears, controlled by these invisible forces, and if we act against them we’re crushed. But there are moments when things can change, when the forces balance and it’s possible for people – individual people – to make a big difference. To – realign things. Remake the world.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“Gods – all gods, I think – are just spells that keep going. Like waterwheels powered by the passage of souls, maybe. Prayer strengthens them, and so does residuum, the portion of the soul that remains in the corpse after death. The gods are not omniscient or omnipotent, just very different from us. More powerful in some ways, but locked into patterns of behaviour they cannot change, so they’re not really sentient, I suppose. Saints are p-p-points of congruency between our world and theirs.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“Getting old was surviving a series of unseen battles; you didn’t always know you were fighting them, but got buffeted and wounded all the same.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“He grunted that war was mostly waiting the way adventuring was mostly walking.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“No wonder all the stories of heroes ended in hasty happily-ever-afters”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“He grasped Alf’s shoulder. “Remember that. We’re the big damn heroes.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“Whatever else was going on around him in this whirlwind of plot and counterplot”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“him,”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Unbound

“they suspected Bor of lying – and that, he thought, was utter”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Unbound

“The dwarf treated the roasted deer as a mountain of meat to be diligently mined,”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“Back up to the main street. The fires are mostly under control, and the Tallowmen - both the dead and the quick - have melted away, one set into the gutters and the other into the shadows.”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Gutter Prayer

“Compared to the glory of the elf-spirit before him”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“The path twisted again”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“Slay Death”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“as the fathers of the fathers of men did”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“You mortals have your little lives. You start afresh with each generation”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant

“Among the dwarves”
― Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Sword Defiant