"I lay in darkness admitting even I had managed to conceal truth beneath a pile of crap. For old men, Hell comes in two versions, lesser and greater. The lesser version happens when history is rewritten, their records expunged, no credit given for ideals or aspirations, nothing bequeathed, all tales revised as the Present, turning, points to a false record and accuses the past for Present suffering. That’s a stern Hell, but the greater version is worse. Hell for old men arrives at that exact moment when we must admit we can no longer protect our kids, our families, our country, the shards and remnants of our love."

"The crotch and the brain are the engines of history."

"The fires of history burn hot and long, but memories of fires do not burn long enough."

"“I almost don’t believe in ghosts.” She was stating part of the problem. If ghosts are a metaphor for history, then belief is a leap into reality. If history is a metaphor for ghosts, matters get really serious."

"I now knew what it was, but just because you can name a thing does not mean you understand it."

"You can only picture the future based on what you know about the past. If history dies the future can only be hideous."

"I needed this the way guys in trenches need head lice."

"Humans, being creative, can rewrite anything. ...which is a coy way of suggesting that each young generation invents history according to its own bigotries. The rewritten history gets quoted to show that one or another special group has perpetually saved civilization while suffering abuse known only to holy saints. The justification for historians is the same as the justification for janitors. Both sweep up the mess when the public gets done trashing."

"I watched the flickers, thought of modern times, and it came to me that we’ve never stopped fighting. When our wars ceased, a rearguard action began. We fought against deterioration of order; and lost as an old culture died and society went crazy at the funeral. Yammer got crowned King, with chatter its Queen."

"So what use are we? Burnside hopes to die exhausted in a cathouse, with the sweet-sweet taste of bourbon on his tongue. My own ambition is less raunchy. I want, at age ninety, to be gunned down while storming the Congress."

"No one recalls the names of dog soldiers who fought beside Leonidas at Thermopylae, or with Charles Martel at the battle of Tours; but how they fought, and what they fought for, lives through centuries. Without those forgotten men western civilization could not have come into being. They put it all on the line, because there are times in history when universal evil crawls from its cave of darkness. When those battles happened, though, what did anyone know? The dog soldier only knew that some fool Persian had it in his head to whip the world, or a Moorish chieftain was on the prod. And the dog soldier stood. He stood between the enemy and home, standing before a way of life that was particularly his. If in his home he was boss during peace, then during war he paid for the honor. The male of the species defends his land and home. It will always be that way. At least that is true of the Infantry."

"“The rules would seem to indicate,” I told him, “that if you start a war you really can’t complain when people drop bombs on you.”"

"I saw old-fashioned cities, quiet streets, small shops, colorful flags and ornaments and decorations—life before machine guns, before communism and capitalism and the ambitions of generals."

"Evil uses Hell as a parking lot, and you don’t have to die to park. Evil sets people in the middle of war, famine, excess prosperity, or other of Hell’s appurtenances, then stands back as people freeze or sizzle; and screw themselves. The main interest of Evil is destruction of faith in gods and ethics, knowledge and honor. When faith is destroyed people create their own hells, and a sign stretches across the universe writ large for all to see. It reads: The Future Is Canceled."

"Absolute Evil exists. As kids we geriatrics learned all about it, and no damn social worker had better come along and blame “evil” on “conditions.” Evil is a force in the universe, a force using any weakness it finds to do its dirt; and with Evil, Hell is just a sideline."

"Either ghosts are a metaphor for history, or history is a metaphor for ghosts."

"Courage, combined with stupidity, does not make successful soldiers."

"The reason to understand history is not to avoid the mistakes of history—because some fool will make those mistakes for you. Some maniac will start a war, and some other maniac will drop an atom bomb, and you'll be the poor bastard who gets to drop the bomb or be hit by it. No, you understand history so you can understand yourself."

"A lot of preachers will be glad this man is gone, and that’s one good thing you can say for him. He drove nice people crazy. This man was a hellion, pure and simple; but what folks don’t understand is, hellions have their place. They put everything on the line over nothing very much. Most guys worry so much about dying, they never do any living. Jesse was so alive with living, he never gave dying any thought."

"Men build all kinds of worlds in order to defeat fear and loneliness."

"Her eyes held that long-distance prairie look, a look knowing wind and fire and hard times, stuff that either breaks people or leaves them wise."

"It’s no big job to fool yourself."

"The world was changing, and it wouldn’t change back."

"Snowy owls come floating in from northward, while folks go to church on Sunday against the time when there’s some better amusement. Men hang around town, because home is either empty or crowded, depending on if you’re married. Folks sit before television, watching the funny, goofy, unreal world where everybody plays at being sexy and naked, even when they’re not."

"Never confuse an idiot."

"All the mysteries of the world seem normal after dark. If imagination shows dead thumbs aching for a ride, those dead folk only prove the hot and spermy goodness of life."

"On top of the war talk, women were driving me crazy: the ones who said “no” and the ones who said “yes.” It got downright mystifying just trying to figure out which was worse. At nineteen, it’s hard to know how to act."

"Cruelty walked the Warrens holding hands with poverty and rage."

"Its limbs were loose, graceless, lying in an uncomfortable position. Unmoving. Just like any corpse. In life, every man was unique. In death every man was meat."

"“I used to believe a lot of things. That doesn’t make them true,” Durzo said."

"“Here I thought they were invincible.” “They’re immortal. It’s not the same thing.”"

"Like many who have no reason for pride, that very lack of reason for it made me the prouder. But certain realities have a way of making themselves felt, and debt is one of them."

"They’re schemers, so they see schemes."

"Kylar woke two hours before dawn and briefly wondered if death would be too high a price to pay for a full night’s sleep."

"I’m trying to do what’s right, whether or not that measures up with what men call honorable. There’s a gap between those, you know?"

"“That pain you feel,” Master Blint said almost gently, “is the pain of abandoning a delusion. The delusion is meaning, Kylar. There is no higher purpose. There are no gods. No arbiters of right and wrong. I don’t ask you to like reality. I only ask you to be strong enough to face it. There is nothing beyond this."

"So he wasn’t dead. That was probably supposed to be a good thing."

"Agon wondered what god Cenaria had offended to deserve such a king."

"See, you get caught up in the past and you become useless to the present."

"It may be beyond your comprehension, but I can hold power without using it."

"Hope is the lies we tell ourselves about the future."

"You’re either being terrifically subtle or making no sense at all."

"A solicitor is a man who does worse things within the law than most crooks do outside it."

"You aren’t making art, you’re making corpses. Dead is dead."

"It wouldn’t be the first time his sharp tongue had cut his own throat."

"“What do you want? Why am I here?” Rat asked. “Ah, petulance and philosophy all bound up in one.”"

"desirable or not, just about any humanoid, mammal, and even monster can have sex with another species of life a mutant dog mated with a mutant cat, while they may make a cute couple, can never give birth to a half dog, half cat child. NEVER!"

"I don't have any odd rituals -- no candles to light, no offerings to the Muse. I simply write Monday through Friday for between 6 and 8 hours like any other working stiff."

"Myla Goldberg sets a steady hand upon her brow Myla Goldberg hangs a crooked foot all upside down It comes around it comes around It comes around it comes around Pretty hands do pretty things when pretty times arise Seraphim and seaweed swim where stick-limbed Myla lies"