There is no sound more annoying than the chatter of a child, and none more sad than the silence they leave when they are gone. Mark Lawrence More Quotes by Mark Lawrence More Quotes From Mark Lawrence All lives are tales. Some spread, and grow in the telling. Others are just told between us and the gods, muttered back and forth behind our days, but those tales grow too and shake us just as fierce. Mark Lawrence back-and-forth tales fierce It was a defeat, resorting to crude threats in a game of subtlety, but sometimes one must sacrifice a battle to win the war. Mark Lawrence sacrifice winning war Questions for questions. You're a man who's spent time at court. Mark Lawrence court men Memory is all we are. Moments and feelings, captured in amber, strung on filaments of reason. Take a man’s memories and you take all of him. Chip away a memory at a time and you destroy him as surely as if you hammered nail after nail through his skull. Mark Lawrence skulls men memories Hold to a thing long enough, a secret, a desire, maybe a lie, and it will shape you. Mark Lawrence secret long lying It is purity of spirit that will keep corruption from the flesh Mark Lawrence corruption flesh spirit And when pain bites, men bargain. Boys too. We twist and turn, we plead and beg, we offer our tormentors what he wants so that the hurting will stop. And when there is no torturer to placate, no hooded man with hot irons and tongs, just a burn you can't escape, we bargain with God, or ourselves, depending on the size of our egos. Mark Lawrence pain hurt boys something in me had got broken, but not so broken I didn't remember what it was. Mark Lawrence broken remember When I started the 'Broken Empire' trilogy, I thought it was a short story, and I didn't know the beginning, middle, or end of even that. Mark Lawrence short end beginning broken Everyone likes a bit of variety. I'm sure none of my readers only want to read about anti-heroes or villainous protagonists any more than they only want to read about square-jawed heroes doing the right thing. I just write characters than entertain me and hope they'll be ones that other people want to read about, too. Mark Lawrence doing me hope people I have a slightly crap blog where I opine on anything that occurs to me and run the occasional silly competition. Mark Lawrence run me competition silly I manage to read about one book a month, all fantasy these days. Mark Lawrence month days fantasy book