“One of the hardest and truest things a grown-up learns is that sometimes it's not okay.”
―
Christopher Buehlman
“But when I make a good [taxidermy] mount I feel like I beat God in a small way. As though the Almighty said, Let such critter be dead, and I said, 'Fuck You, he can still play the banjo.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Those Across the River
“But it will be harder for you if you remember. Love is always harder. Love means weathering blows for another’s sake and not counting them. Love is loss of self, loss of other, and faith in the death of loss.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Between Two Fires
“A mundane lie hiding an exotic truth is deception; an exotic lie hiding a mundane truth is storytelling. Deception may be necessary to preserve life, but storytelling makes life worth living.” ― Christopher Buehlman
“Shall we journey East together?"She considered me. "What will you do for me?""It's what we'll do for each other.""So tell me.""I'll watch while you sleep. Sleep while you watch. I'll lie to you when it doesn't matter, but I'll also lie for you when it does. If you let me do the talking, I'll make sure you miss the penny-cock with the pizzle-itch and get the best wine in the merchant's barrel. You'll never again meet a door you can't get through nor a wall you can't get eyes over. I need your arms, yes, but you need my nose. If you do the worst of the fighting, I'll make sure you know where your foes are coming from and cull the weak ones. I won't be your dog, but if you are half the wolf I think you are, you've found a fox to run with.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“Only the strong, the rich, and the dying think truth is a necessity; the rest of us know it for a luxury.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“I was so scared, I half wanted to piss myself, but the difference between the strong and the weak isn't that the strong don't piss themselves. It's that they hitch their pissy pants up after and go through with it.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“One scene stayed with de Chauliac forever, obsessing him, even though, mercifully, the rest would blur; he saw a devil with wide black wings gripped by two angels, who drove it down and seemed to speak in its ears as they fell; they hit the bend of the Rhone, sending up a great, illuminated plume of water visible from Orange. Two angels and a devil had tumbled into the water. Three angels came up.Forgiveness, then, was possible even for the worst.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Between Two Fires
“if she had to summon a smile to put out a fire, half the town would burn.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“My five Upstart sons are all bloody and braveI’ve got one on the gallows, and two in the graveOne is your prisoner, and none is your slave“Pish,” said Gormalin. “That’s a war song!”I’ve got one in the hills that you never have metAnd though he is young, he will murder you yetFor the hour is coming you’ll answer your debt“That song’s illegal!” he protested, and right he was. It’s the very song that got Kellan na Falth hanged. “You can’t sing about men killing men since the Goblin Wars! Especially not a song against a proper king of Holt, even an old, bad king!”Now, of course, I joined in.My five Upstart sons have declared against youTheir tongues are as black as their promise is trueAnd they’ll call you to answer whatever you do!No Coldfoot guard was going to be left out of an illegal Galtish rebel song, so Malk picked up the next verse with us, his strong, confident baritone suddenly making the whole insurrection seem credible.The crown you so love sits but light on your headThe castle you stole has a cold, stony bedAnd though I am old, I will yet see you deadYou’ve hundreds of men with long swords and long knivesBut you’ve lain with near half of their fair Galtish wivesAnd none of them love you to lay down their livesAbandon your tower and open your gateNo silver-bought army can alter your fateIf all my five perish, my neighbor has eightOur ten thousand sons have declared against youTheir tongues are as black as their promise is trueAnd they’re coming, they’re coming, whatever you do” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“May laughter keep us young and malice keep us rich.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“That was a mean thought, and not funny at all. I let it turn to sand and blow out of my head.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Those Across the River
“Man is born into sin. All because of Adam.”Guillaume said, “Mostly Eve, my priest told us.”Delphine looked up from the water now. “That’s not fair.”“How’s that?” said Guillaume. “She was tempted by something stronger than her. Adam was tempted by a weaker creature. Or so we are told. If Eve was his inferior, his sin was greater. You can’t have it both ways.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Between Two Fires
“I won’t be your dog, but if you’re half the wolf I think you are, you’ve found a fox to run with.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“Spear had picked up her lost hand and run into the forest like she knew a sewer-on of hands whose shop closed soon.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“We know too much about the gods to hope for their benevolence, do we not?” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“What a fabulous kingdom the mind is, and you the emperor of all of it. You can bed the duke's wife and have the duke strangled in your mind. A crippled man can think himself a dancer, and an idiot can fool himself wise. The day a magicker peeks into the thoughts of commoners for some thin-skinned duke or king will be a bad day. Those with callused hands will rise on that day, for a man will only toil in a mine so long as he can dream of sunny fields, and he'll only kneel for a tyrant if he can secretly cut that tyrant's throat in the close theater of his bowed head.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“If you’re looking for a story about nice people doing nice things, this isn’t for you. You will be burdened with an unreliable narrator who will disappoint and repel you at every turn.Still with me?Too bad for you.I can’t wait to break your heart.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Lesser Dead
“I'm a man who will always choose to know.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“But when I make a good [taxidermy] mount I feel like I beat God in a small way. As though the Almighty said, Let such critter be dead, and I said, 'Fuck You, he can still play the banjo.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Those Across the River
“But it will be harder for you if you remember. Love is always harder. Love means weathering blows for another’s sake and not counting them. Love is loss of self, loss of other, and faith in the death of loss.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Between Two Fires
“A mundane lie hiding an exotic truth is deception; an exotic lie hiding a mundane truth is storytelling. Deception may be necessary to preserve life, but storytelling makes life worth living.” ― Christopher Buehlman
“Shall we journey East together?"She considered me. "What will you do for me?""It's what we'll do for each other.""So tell me.""I'll watch while you sleep. Sleep while you watch. I'll lie to you when it doesn't matter, but I'll also lie for you when it does. If you let me do the talking, I'll make sure you miss the penny-cock with the pizzle-itch and get the best wine in the merchant's barrel. You'll never again meet a door you can't get through nor a wall you can't get eyes over. I need your arms, yes, but you need my nose. If you do the worst of the fighting, I'll make sure you know where your foes are coming from and cull the weak ones. I won't be your dog, but if you are half the wolf I think you are, you've found a fox to run with.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“Only the strong, the rich, and the dying think truth is a necessity; the rest of us know it for a luxury.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“I was so scared, I half wanted to piss myself, but the difference between the strong and the weak isn't that the strong don't piss themselves. It's that they hitch their pissy pants up after and go through with it.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“One scene stayed with de Chauliac forever, obsessing him, even though, mercifully, the rest would blur; he saw a devil with wide black wings gripped by two angels, who drove it down and seemed to speak in its ears as they fell; they hit the bend of the Rhone, sending up a great, illuminated plume of water visible from Orange. Two angels and a devil had tumbled into the water. Three angels came up.Forgiveness, then, was possible even for the worst.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Between Two Fires
“if she had to summon a smile to put out a fire, half the town would burn.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“My five Upstart sons are all bloody and braveI’ve got one on the gallows, and two in the graveOne is your prisoner, and none is your slave“Pish,” said Gormalin. “That’s a war song!”I’ve got one in the hills that you never have metAnd though he is young, he will murder you yetFor the hour is coming you’ll answer your debt“That song’s illegal!” he protested, and right he was. It’s the very song that got Kellan na Falth hanged. “You can’t sing about men killing men since the Goblin Wars! Especially not a song against a proper king of Holt, even an old, bad king!”Now, of course, I joined in.My five Upstart sons have declared against youTheir tongues are as black as their promise is trueAnd they’ll call you to answer whatever you do!No Coldfoot guard was going to be left out of an illegal Galtish rebel song, so Malk picked up the next verse with us, his strong, confident baritone suddenly making the whole insurrection seem credible.The crown you so love sits but light on your headThe castle you stole has a cold, stony bedAnd though I am old, I will yet see you deadYou’ve hundreds of men with long swords and long knivesBut you’ve lain with near half of their fair Galtish wivesAnd none of them love you to lay down their livesAbandon your tower and open your gateNo silver-bought army can alter your fateIf all my five perish, my neighbor has eightOur ten thousand sons have declared against youTheir tongues are as black as their promise is trueAnd they’re coming, they’re coming, whatever you do” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“May laughter keep us young and malice keep us rich.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“That was a mean thought, and not funny at all. I let it turn to sand and blow out of my head.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Those Across the River
“Man is born into sin. All because of Adam.”Guillaume said, “Mostly Eve, my priest told us.”Delphine looked up from the water now. “That’s not fair.”“How’s that?” said Guillaume. “She was tempted by something stronger than her. Adam was tempted by a weaker creature. Or so we are told. If Eve was his inferior, his sin was greater. You can’t have it both ways.” ― Christopher Buehlman, Between Two Fires
“I won’t be your dog, but if you’re half the wolf I think you are, you’ve found a fox to run with.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“Spear had picked up her lost hand and run into the forest like she knew a sewer-on of hands whose shop closed soon.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“We know too much about the gods to hope for their benevolence, do we not?” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“What a fabulous kingdom the mind is, and you the emperor of all of it. You can bed the duke's wife and have the duke strangled in your mind. A crippled man can think himself a dancer, and an idiot can fool himself wise. The day a magicker peeks into the thoughts of commoners for some thin-skinned duke or king will be a bad day. Those with callused hands will rise on that day, for a man will only toil in a mine so long as he can dream of sunny fields, and he'll only kneel for a tyrant if he can secretly cut that tyrant's throat in the close theater of his bowed head.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
“If you’re looking for a story about nice people doing nice things, this isn’t for you. You will be burdened with an unreliable narrator who will disappoint and repel you at every turn.Still with me?Too bad for you.I can’t wait to break your heart.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Lesser Dead
“I'm a man who will always choose to know.” ― Christopher Buehlman, The Blacktongue Thief
