Bernard Cornwell Quotes
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'The more I see of families ... the happier I am to be an orphan.'
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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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Here, in this filthy stench of powder smoke, he felt at home. Other men learned how to plough fields or to shape wood, but Sharpe had learned how to use a musket or rifle, sword or bayonet, and how to turn an enemy's flank or assault a fortress.
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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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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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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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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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'You want a blessing, my son? Then God give strength to your bow and add bite to your arrows! May your arm never tire and your eye never dim. God and the saints bless you while you kill!'
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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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'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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'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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'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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'They like the idea of recusing women. ... Everyone hates the bloody army till someone needs rescuing, then we're all bloody heroes and white knights.'