G.R. Matthews Quotes

#1. Sword fighting is not a dance, not in battle. You save all that showing off for the duels if you want to. In battle, when you kill, kill quickly, and be ready for the next enemy to come at you. One strike should be all it takes. It's all you'll get

G.R. Matthews

#2. The young woman didn't move or acknowledge my presence, but when you've lost the back half of your skull I'd imagine that the appearance of a man as handsome as me was low on your list of priorities.

G.R. Matthews

#3. Only the last gasp of evening served to illuminate the stone floor.

G.R. Matthews

#4. If you can't hide, act confident. It would have to be one hell of an act.

G.R. Matthews

#5. How many millennia had she witnessed? Watching people, loved ons, be bron, live, grow and die was at once a thought of wonder and infinite sadness.

G.R. Matthews

#6. It may seem strange, but I have an aversion to people trying to kill me. It sparks this almost unconscious desire to do something about it. It also sets fire to my desire to survive.

G.R. Matthews

#7. The fear receded. It didn't disappear. It lurked in the shadows, its claws hooking into passing thoughts and twisting them, turning them from their purpose to its own. He held it back. It was the hardest fight of his life.

G.R. Matthews

#8. The moment froze. Soldiers passing by stopped and looked, confused. Zhou could taste the moment on his tongue. The wrong move by anyone, from soldier to magician, and the fear would give way to anger, anger to violence and then to death.

G.R. Matthews

#9. Zhou watched the fake Chung's face vanish to be replaced by another's.
"Look, Hsin," Zhou snarled, "this is your fault."
"No." Hsin's voice was a desperate whisper.

G.R. Matthews

#10. You and the spirit are no different, there is no separation. You are the spirit and the spirit is you. It has always been this way. Where there are no spirits, there are no people. This is what we must awaken in people.

G.R. Matthews

#11. Stubborness isn't a choice, it's a way of life.

G.R. Matthews

#12. The sea is never quiet. There is always noise. Close to the city, the deep hum of the generators and the clanking of people and machines churning out whatever it was they made.

G.R. Matthews

#13. An information panel was helpfully flashing the word "Emergency". I couldn't fault its grasp of the situation.

G.R. Matthews

#14. The image of Jiao's face when she was told he had been drowned with a half-naked woman tied to his body made him giggle and he realised he was close to panicking.

G.R. Matthews

#15. There is something weird about facing a dripping wet, semi-naked man across a padded practice mat when you're wearing nothing but your own skin tight underwear and that's covered in a slippery, oily gel. If this got any more homoerotic, I'd have to think about introducing him to my parents.

G.R. Matthews

#16. We live in the deep sea, surrounded by pressure that could kill us in an instant, with no access to the surface world, that is our natural home.

G.R. Matthews

#17. We are not at the pinnacle of our power, of our existence. We have scrambled to the top of an ant-hill at the bottom of the world's highest mountain. We have long way still to climb." - The Blue Mountain

G.R. Matthews

#18. A minute later the steam stopped. By then, I was soaking wet and, no doubt, my pores were open. Some people pay a fortune for this kind of beauty treatment. I got mine for free, if you disregard the bruises, headache and all those dead people."
- Corin Hayes, Silent City (working title)

G.R. Matthews

#19. The reality, Haung knew, would be something quite different. From a distance, civilisation looks clean and desirable. Up close, the shine is dulled by self-interest and tarnished by greed.

G.R. Matthews