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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.

Bernard Cornwell

We don’t build,’ I said to my son, ‘we just destroy.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Build Destroy Son
Love 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.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Love Men Thinking Wanted Wrenches
Wyrd bith ful araed (Fate is inexorable).
BERNARD CORNWELL

Arared Fate Ful Inexorable
Of course some days are easier than others, but my worst day is better than being in most humdrum occupations.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Easier Occupation
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.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Alone Company Happiness Leave Lost Miss Soul
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.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Achieve Funny Inspirational Ocean
Writing is a solitary occupation.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Occupation Solitary Writing
You know what circumcision is, Private?
BERNARD CORNWELL

Circumcision Knows Private
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.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Book Clear Happily Married
Because there could not be peace, not while two tribes shared one land. One tribe must win. Even the nailed god cannot change that truth. And I was a warrior, and in a world at war the warrior must be cruel.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Change Land Tribe War Winning
Book tours and research provide a lot of travel – too much, I sometimes think, but we do take vacations.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Book Thinking Travel Vacation
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 CORNWELL

Fool Love Regret Savage Song Start
We discover that it is all an illusion and nothing is there. Lust is a voyage to nowhere, to an empty land, but some men just love such voyages and never care about the destination. Love is a voyage too, a voyage with no destination except death, but a voyage of bliss.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Destination Love Lust Men Such Voyage
I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the first book had not sold… doesn’t bear thinking about, but I suppose we’d have made it work somehow.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Book Firsts Sold Suppose Thinking
I know nothing about producing TV drama and any involvement on my part is liable to prove an obstacle to the producers, so I prefer to be a cheerleader and let them get on with it.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Cheerleader Drama Obstacle Procedure
Then you start another book and suddenly the galley proofs of the last one come in and you have to wrench your attention away from what you’re writing and try to remember what you were thinking when you wrote the previous one.
BERNARD CORNWELL

Attention Book Proof Thinking Writing

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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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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Popular Authors

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