"“It is a measure of our Lord’s power, is it not, that man must spend a fortune in silver and gold to achieve merely the palest imitation of the glory found in the poorest part of His creation?"

"Surely a man passing by a lamp will cast a shadow?"

"Reasonable men make the mistake of thinking everyone else is reasonable."

"The world has seen many religions and many miracles. What one person might attribute to one god, another might credit to some different deity. It is all a mystery to us mortals. But if the edge of my sword draws blood when the need arises, does it matter what forge it came from?"

"Life seems to more often resemble a game of knucklebones, where nothing can be predicted!"

"While one cannot repay a kindness, one can at least pass it along by helping someone else."

"Well, my friend, numbers have their own beauty ... They balance, like lines in well-constructed verse."

"We can’t always choose what we must endure. Indignity, at least, can be survived."

"All men disappoint their fathers, or at least suppose that they do."

"Senator! As if that title means anything these days. A senator’s worth as much as the land he holds and nothing more."

"You did not wield the blade. It was not your fault. Nor, for that matter, was it mine, either for taking your advice or losing my way in a foreign land. The fault lies solely in the hearts of those who would take from a man everything he is for the sake of getting a few more coins for him when they sell him into slavery."

"It is far better to reconcile our philosophies than to shed blood. The pen can defeat the sword if wielded with sufficient skill."

"Time is a thing that the emperor may easily take from a man but something that, alas, even the emperor cannot have newly minted."

"If wine can talk, doubtless it can also wield a weapon, and while some men find Lethe in their cups, others find the Furies."

"But there are always scum ready to take advantage, skulking about the back ways and waiting in the shadows. Too cowardly to fight but brave enough to rob and steal the weak while others are engaged upon matters of war."

"“There’s no justice, John! There is no reason at all for me to be kept here!” “Justice is the first casualty of war and that’s the point we’re rapidly approaching.""

"He wondered how long Anatolius’ stoicism would endure. Soldiers who had silently borne the most grievous battlefield wounds could be reduced to whimpering madness by extended periods of enforced hopelessness."

"“Will the mob follow one who is dead?” John countered. “More readily than one who is alive.”"

"Such disloyalty pains me, but in due course it will pain them much more, I assure you [...] At times, my subjects are like children, appeased with golden toys, a delightful entertainment, unaccustomed delicacies to eat, a handful of coins. Failing that, there are always sterner measures of persuasion, such as the removal of their ringleader’s head. After all, if their leader cannot keep his, what chance have his miserable followers?"

"“No more so than Constantinople, Peter [...] We just become inured to what surrounds us. Why do you suppose that we scarcely notice the beggars crowding around the Milion? Sometimes it takes a stranger’s eyes to see what is clearly before us yet to which we are blind.”"

"“Who does not distrust a eunuch, Peter? They’ve always had bad reputations, and in many cases with good reason if you care to study history. So it may be that Theodora, because of my condition, mistakes me for one of those treacherous creatures. But I believe there may well be a more specific reason [...] It was a eunuch’s failed plotting that brought Justinian’s family to power. Who is to say whether another eunuch’s more successful plot might not topple him from the throne?”"

"It’s difficult to overcome affection for a person who has served you faithfully for many years, even when he betrays you."

"The wagon maker can’t lament every broken axle."

"Life continually seems to swing back and forth between haste and wait and rarely continues for any space on an even keel."

"Is it so wrong to be reminded that there are beautiful things in the world too?"

"Duty must always come before affairs of the heart."

"“Magick may be nothing but trickery but it has its fascinations to a scholar such as myself.”“Magickal tricks are simple once you understand how they work, sir. People are gullible. They’ll see what they want or expect to see. When the jeweler substitutes green glass for emeralds, people accept what appears to be genuine gems and never realize they’re completely worthless.”"

"But surely, John, what we think about is who we are. In the workings of our bodies we are all the same. It is only in our thoughts and beliefs that we differ."

"“I may no longer have my looks, sir, but I do have a way with people!”"

"Are you surprised I should call upon a slave? I was not born to the palace and neither was our emperor. Both of us might have been farmers. I would as soon be served by those of similar humble origins. Adversity is a better teacher than luxury."

"“Alive or dead, my fate has nothing to do with my own efforts. It was Fortuna spared me and nothing more than that.” “I should say it was the Lord that spared you,” Dorotheus replied with a quick scowl. “If you want to call Him Fortuna, I doubt He cares. But having Him on your side is better than having all the emperor’s armies at your back.”"

"“It’s not the beatings and robberies and assaults that scare people, it’s all the counting and scribbling it down.""

"There’s nothing courtiers enjoy more than seeing blood spilled. Until a drop of it gets on their clothing."

"“It is all as nothing. I might have dreamt being emperor. Memories have no more substance than dreams, and in the end all our lives will become only memories. I’ve led men into battle, seen kings kneel before me. I’ve raised great churches to the glory of the Lord, heard the accolades of thousands in the Hippodrome. Yet if I had only an hour of my life to live again, it would be the first time I shared the bed of the girl I married. So much for all our ambitions, my loyal quaestor.”"

"I wonder why so many don’t realize there are greater enemies closer to home than at the border?"

"“When men become powerful, they have as many enemies as a ship has barnacles,” Anna replied. “Then, too often, men have long memories. They nurse grudges for years until their chance for revenge arrives. Or they have one too many burdens to carry, or some other reason, trifling perhaps in itself, but one that causes them to finally strike.”"

"Isn’t it said that the best revenge is one that has been contemplated for some time?"

"It’s her influence on him that’s feared. And rightly so. Women often turn good men into beasts."

"“If you were me, nephew,” Justin broke in impatiently, “you could tell easily the difference between dreams and reality. When I dream I can’t feel this damned gnawing agony in my leg.” “Well, this dream was so real I could actually smell the sea,” Justinian pressed on."

"Like land holdings, people do not necessarily remain owned by the same person."

"The PI days are over, if they'd ever been there in the first place. I've been concentrating my energies on caretaker work, whatever errand Paulo needs me to run. Sweeping floors, picking up the focus pads, grunt work. Whatever pays the bills and keeps me clean. Because God knows, being on license isn't all it's cracked up to be. Probation's a barbed wire leash. And I've already felt it dig into my throat once before."

"Burgess gazes through me, like he's trying to read my mind instead of asking me straight out. Probably thinking that if he did ask something, he'd get a fistful of lies in return. Some blokes I know, that stare puts the shits up them, makes them paranoid. Others just take it as a confirmation of their recidivism, makes them think their record marks them like a bad dose of acne, that they haven't got a chance in the outside world. And that's what they call a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"The joker swigs whiskey and grips the bottle that little bit harder. This isn't going to end well. Everyone squaring up like it's West Side fucking Story. This is going to end with the pair of us in hospital and no medical insurance."

"I'm constantly surprised by the space in this country. Back in Manchester, there's no such thing as this much space. The city center's become a shrine to high-rise buildings, people shunted into tiny apartments, paying over the odds to enjoy wooden floors and sky-high urban living. Students and young professionals everywhere, multiplying like a hostile virus. But here a man can live without seeing another individual if he wants to. It's a comforting thought, that kind of isolation. I've lived too long under people's feet, or with people under mine. Might be good to get away from it all out here. It's a fantasy. A ridiculous fucking dream, but that's what this country's all about."

"You don't reason with a pillhead psycho. You don't try. You do what I just did — hit him as hard as you can and run the other way. And you hope you hit him hard enough that the battle's done and so's the fucking war. Hope you put enough force into those blows to make 'em count, put him down and keep him down."

"When I'm finished, I reach for the towel, catch a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror above the basin. The glimpse turns into a full vacant stare. Blood spots all over my face. A missing earlobe. Battle on. That's what they say. I rub the towel over my face, watch the blood smear in the mirror. Yeah, you battle on."

"I enjoy the hard-boiled style. ... It certainly isn't a new formula, though Ray Banks does follow it well."

"Much of Innes' narration is East London slang, generously laced with profanities and hard for Americans to grasp. But Banks' tough-guy prose is irresistible."

"Vivid and realistic, with an appealingly flawed hero and an interesting setting amid the underside of modern LA, this is a knockout."

"By transplanting his thuggish noir from Manchester to LA, Ray Banks' second Cal Innes novel has two sets of mean streets to pace. Not that his grasp of characterisation has gotten any stronger: Donkey Punch is as terse and macho as Saturday's Child, although his hardboiled writing style has become more poised and confident."