No half measures. Some things can’t be cut in half. You can’t half-love someone. You can’t half-betray, or half-lie.

There is no sound more annoying than the chatter of a child, and none more sad than the silence they leave when they are gone.

You can only win the game when you understand that it is a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him lose them all.

Most men have at least one redeeming feature. Finding one for Brother Rike requires a stretch. Is 'big' a redeeming feature?

Few things worth having can be got easily.

In the end it seems we're just toys,easy to break and hard to mend

For the longest time I studied revenge to the exclusion of all else. I built my first torture chamber in the dark vaults of imagination. Lying on bloody sheets in the Healing Hall I discovered doors within my mind that I'd not found before, doors that even a child of nine knows should not be opened. Doors that never close again. I threw them wide.