The Mackenzie had never met folk so poor in story and song and legends, and it moved him to a pity that pricked at his eyes. Without that tapestry of colour and words and ritual, what was life but eating and mating, sleeping and moving your bowels? All of them good and necessary, but not enough; and they themselves needed that framework too, to give them meaning.

A fighter should not think only of his shete, just because he has a shete in his hand. Everything is a weapon in the warrior's mind.

The heart has its reasons that the mind knows not?

There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.

Bad writers have influences. Good writers steal.

Leading means running fast enough to keep ahead of your people.

Now let's move on to the subject of how a real man treats his wife. A real man doesn't slap even a ten-dollar hooker around, if he's got any self-respect, much less hurt his own woman. Much less ten times over the mother of his kids. A real man busts his ass to feed his family, fights for them if he has to, dies for them if he has to. And he treats his wife with respect every day of his life, treats her like a queen - the queen of the home she makes for their children.