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He's actually a rather good ruler. Better, I suspect, than most of our Christian monarchs. He's certainly been good for Mysore. He's fetched it a deal of wealth, given it more justice than most countries enjoy in India and he's been tolerant to most religions, though I fear he did persecute some unfortunate Christians.
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The Light Company were not worried by the French. If Richard Sharpe wanted to lead them to Paris they would go, blindly confident that he would see them through
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My God, I will not abide plundering, especially by officers. How can you expect obedience from the men when officers are corrupt?
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Sharpe had been turbulent, ambitious, but one day, Hogan supposed, that restlessness would have found satisfaction. Then, curiously, Hogan found himself resenting Sharpe, resenting him because he had been killed and was thus denying his friendship to those who still lived.
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Judy couldn't move to Britain for family reasons, so I had to come to the States, and the U.S. government wouldn't give me a Green Card, so I airily told her I'd write a book.
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All gunners were deaf, they said. They were the kings of the battlefield and they never heard the applause.
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So far it's 43 books in 25 years.
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'Form them up Sergeant!' 'Aye aye, sir.' 'You're not a bloody sailor, Sergeant. A plain yes will do.' Aye aye, sir.'
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'It ain't justice, Richard, but politics, and like all politics it ain't pretty, but well done it can work wonders.'
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At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.
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'The door is locked, Captain.' 'Then I'll break it down.' 'It is a shrine.' 'Then I'll say a prayer of forgiveness after I've knocked it down.'
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'There are rules, orders, regulations, Sharpe, by which our lives are conducted. If we ignore those rules, burdensome though they may be, then we open the gates to anarchy and tyranny; the very things against which we fight!'
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'You've never heard of Paul Revere?' 'No.' 'Lucky man, Sharpe. He called my father a traitor, and our family called Revere a traitor, and I rather think we lost the argument.'
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He had thought the army would pay for the voyage, but the army had refused, saying that Sharpe was accepting an invitation to join the 95th Rifles and if the 95th Rifles refused to pay his passage then damn them, damn their badly colored coats, and damn Sharpe. ... Britain had sent Sharpe to India, and Britain, Sharpe reckoned, should fetch him back.