Keivan

“If this was something I could cut out of myself with a knife,' he said, dropping her shoulders to bare his chest, as though exposing some treacherous organ, 'I would start cutting. I would carve it out if it killed me. But it’s not .' He shook his head, and finally his voice subsided. 'It’s been there all my life, since I was a tiny boy. This fear is part of every memory I have.”
― Brian Staveley, The Last Mortal Bond

“I felt like giving old Jane a buzz”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“The mind was a clay pot set out in the rain. A monk could empty it daily and still the old hopes and worries, the body’s meager strengths and perennial pains pattered against the bottom, trickled down the sides, filling it once more.”
― Brian Staveley, The Emperor's Blades

“We can end it right here.'
When Triste finally replied, her voice was small, lost. 'I don’t want to die.'
Kaden stared at her. She had come so close so many times already. 'Why not?'
She shook her head helplessly. 'I don’t know .'
'There is only more of this, Triste. More hiding, more hunger, more torture.'
'We might get out. We might escape.'
Kaden shook his head wearily. 'It doesn’t matter. Rassambur isn’t the prison.' He tapped a finger against the side of his skull. 'This is.”
― Brian Staveley, The Last Mortal Bond