Quotes by Robin Hobb

Everyone thinks that courage is about facing death without flinching. But almost anyone can do that. Almost anyone can hold their breath and not scream for as long as it takes to die. True courage is about facing life without flinching. I dont mean the times when the right path is hard, but glorious at the end. Im talking about enduring the boredom, the messiness, and the inconvenience of doing what is right.

That is the challenge Companion. To take what has happened to you and learn from it. Nothing is quite so destructive as pity, especially self-pity. No event in life is so terrible that one cannot rise above it.

The second thing you have to do to be a writer is to keep on writing. Dont listen to people who tell you that very few people get published and you wont be one of them. Dont listen to your friend who says you are better that Tolkien and dont have to try any more. Keep writing, keep faith in the idea that you have unique stories to tell, and tell them. I meet far too many people who are going to be writers someday. When they are out of high school, when theyve finished college, after the wedding, when the kids are older, after I retire . . . That is such a trap You will never have any more free time than you do right now. So, whether you are 12 or 70, you should sit down today and start being a writer if that is what you want to do. You might have to write on a notebook while your kids are playing on the swings or write in your car on your coffee break. Thats okay. I think weve all been there, done that. It all starts with the writing.

When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool you end up looking like a moron instead.

That no man can truly imagine being happy and thats why happiness isnt for sale here.

As I apologized to her a flicker of panic raced through me and then faded away. There wasnt enough life left in me to panic. Id made a mistake and I was dying. Apparently not even a Speck afterlife was available to me. Id simply stop being. Apparently I hadnt died correctly. Oops.

The knowledge that he had left me with no intent ever to return had come over me in tiny droplets of realization spread over the years. And each droplet of comprehension brought its own small measure of hurt...He had wished me well in finding my own fate to follow, and I never doubted his sincerity. But it had taken me years to accept that his absence in my life was a deliberate finality, an act he had chosen, a thing completed even as some part of my soul still dangled, waiting for his return.

The knowledge that he had left me with no intent ever to return had come over me in tiny droplets of realization spread over the years. And each droplet of comprehension brought its own small measure of hurt.

What is a secret? It is much more than knowledge shared with only a few, or perhaps only one another. It is power. It is a bond. It is a sign of deep trust, or the darkest threat possible. There is power in the keeping of a secret, and power in the revelation of a secret. Sometimes it takes a very wise man to discern which is the path to greater power. All men desirous of power should become collectors of secrets. There is no secret too small to be valuable. All men value their own secrets far above those of others. A scullery maid may be willing to betray a prince before allowing the name of her secret lover to be told.

I once knew of a minstrel who bragged of having had a thousand women, one time each. He would never know what I knew, that to have one woman a thousand times, and each time find in her a different delight, is far better. I knew now what gleamed in the eyes of old couples when they stared at each other across a room...My familiarity with her was a more potent love elixir than any potion sold by a hedge-witch in the market.

The death of Nighteyes gutted me. I walked wounded through my life in the days that followed, unaware of just how mutilated I was. I was like the man who complains of the itching of his severed leg. The itching distracts from the immense knowledge that one will forever after hobble through life.

Its too late to apologize for I have already forgiven you. -FitzChivalry Farseer

One had a knife. But I had a staff and was trained to use it.

Surprise!-FitzChivalry

You, I surmised, and gestured round. Thank you.No, he denied. His pale hair floated out from beneath his cap in a halo as he shook his head. But I assisted. Thank you for bathing. It makes my task of checking on you less onerous. Im glad youre awake. You snore abominably.I let this comment pass. Youve grown. I observed. Yes. So have you. And youve been sick. And you slept quite a long time. And now youre awake and bathed and fed. You still look terrible. But you no longer smell. Its late afternoon now. Are there any other obvious facts youd like to review?

One part braggart to one part coward. He would fear everyone he did not control. And the next day he would fear those he controlled even more.

A woman of many talents. And intelligent, too. Hed probably have to kill her soon.

I was amazed at how strong women were when they were angry.

But change proves that you are still alive. Change often measures our tolerance for folk different from ourselves. Can we accept their languages, their customs, their garments, and their foods into our own lives? If we can, then we form bonds, bonds that make wars less likely. If we cannot, if we believe that we must do things as we have always done them, then we must either fight to remain as we are, or die

Life is not a race to restore a past situation. Nor does one have to hurry to meet the future. Seeing how things change is what makes life interesting.