Bernard Cornwell Quotes

Pride makes a man, it drives him, it is the shield wall around his reputation... Men die, they said, but reputation does not die.

Wyrd bith ful araed (Fate is inexorable).

You won't regret the men you never killed, but you will regret the women you passed up.

We all suffer from dreams

Writing is a solitary occupation.

Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.

Of course some days are easier than others, but my worst day is better than being in most humdrum occupations.

Book tours and research provide a lot of travel - too much, I sometimes think, but we do take vacations.

The existence of tricks does not imply the absence of magic.

We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation.

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.

Looking back, of course, it was irresponsible, mad, forlorn, idiotic, but if you don't take chances then you'll never have a winning hand, and I've no regrets.

And yes, there's a simplicity to writing books because you're not a member of a team, so you make all the decisions yourself instead of deferring to a committee.

Life is a jest of the Gods and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh… or else you'll weep yourself to death.

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.

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.

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.

I'll happily mentor anyone who wants mentoring, and most of that goes on by internet rather than face to face.

Television is a young person's medium.

At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.

You know what circumcision is, Private?

Latin! The language of God! Or perhaps He speaks Hebrew? I suppose that's more likely and it will make things rather awkward in heaven, won't it? Will we all have to learn Hebrew?

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.

Madness ends sometimes. The Gods decree it, not man.

A man does not see where he treads in battle, for he is watching the enemy.

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.

We don't build,' I said to my son, 'we just destroy.

So far it's 43 books in 25 years.

Lord Derfel, you do insult a man so very easily. What was it to be? My head in a pit dunged by slaves? What a paltry imagination you do have. Mine, I fear, sometimes seems excessive, even to me.

I decided to start a war, father", I said, cheerfully, "it's so much more interesting than peace.

This isn't just a war over land, it's a war about God. And Alfred...is Christ's servant...

And I looked, ' Pyrlig said to me, 'and I saw a pale horse, and the rider's name was death.' I just stared in amazement. 'It's in the gospel book, ' he explained sheepishly, 'and it just cam to mind.

I have learned that it is one thing to kill in battle, to send a brave man's soul to the corpse hall of the gods, but quite another to take a helpless man's life...

We all suffer from dreams.

So a good man can be a bad Christian?""I suppose so.""Then a bad man, " I said, "can be a good Christian?

A sad, plangent music. In the British camp, Sharpe thought, they would be singing, but no one was singing here.

I would hear him screaming, I would watch him bleed, I would tear his flesh piece by piece before I would worry about Æthelflaed. This was family. This was revenge.

Nor did he care about his childhood, for certainly I never heard him speak of it. I once questioned him about his early days and he would not answer. ‘What is the egg to the eagle?’ he asked me…

We should know who they are, " I said, "before we kill them. That's just being polite.

Is all ordained? Foreknowledge is not fate, and we may choose our paths, yet fate says we may not choose them. So if fate is real, do we have a choice?

When a man cannot fight he would curse. The gods like to feel needed.

It's better to make the wrong choice, " my father had continued, "than to make no choice at all.

The wheel of fortune that had once raised her so high had taken her into the utter depths.

Prisoners!" Finan shouted, and I suspected he was shouting at me because I had so blatantly ignored my own insistence that we take men captive.

All you need to know, boy, " Finan growled, "is that Lord Uhtred's side is the one that wins.

...victory does not come to men who listen to their fears.

Serpent-Breath was famous...Wasp-Sting, short and lethal.

If they saw men swarming up the wall, if they saw the axes chopping at our shields on the wall’s top, then they would join the battle. Men want to be on the winning side.