Only a fool wants war, but once a war starts then it cannot be fought half-heartedly. It cannot even be fought with regret, but must be waged with a savage joy in defeating the enemy, and it is that savage joy that inspires our bards to write their greatest songs about love and war.
BERNARD CORNWELLLove is a dangerous thing. It comes in disguise to change our life… Lust is the deceiver. Lust wrenches our lives until nothing matters except the one we think we love, and under that deceptive spell we kill for them, give all for them, and then, when we have what we have wanted.
More Bernard Cornwell Quotes
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Book tours and research provide a lot of travel – too much, I sometimes think, but we do take vacations.
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Even the nailed god cannot change that truth. And I was a warrior, and in a world at war the warrior must be cruel.
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Pride makes a man, it drives him, it is the shield wall around his reputation… Men die, they said, but reputation does not die.
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The existence of tricks does not imply the absence of magic.
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The bards sing of love, they celebrate slaughter, they extol kings and flatter queens, but were I a poet I would write in praise of friendship.
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We don’t build,’ I said to my son, ‘we just destroy.
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Of course some days are easier than others, but my worst day is better than being in most humdrum occupations.
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Know that their voice can make your heart miss a beat and that their company is all your happiness can ever desire and that their absence will leave your soul alone, bereft and lost.
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I do understand that you can look into someone’s eyes,” I heard myself saying, “and suddenly know that life will be impossible without them.
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Every day is ordinary, until it isn’t.
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Research is a lifelong occupation so it’s hard to factor it in, but I reckon most books take 5 months from start to finish.
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I’ll happily mentor anyone who wants mentoring, and most of that goes on by internet rather than face to face.
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I’m fortunate that the books sell, but even more fortunate to live in Chatham, to be very happily married and to have, on the whole, a fairly clear conscience.
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What I mean by that is that the point of life, as I see it, is not to write books or scale mountains or sail oceans, but to achieve happiness, and preferably an unselfish happiness.
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Wyrd bith ful araed (Fate is inexorable).
BERNARD CORNWELL