“He didn't want to please his readers. He wanted to stretch them until they twanged.”

“It was the dilemma of the watchers: they didn't want to wait around for nothing at all, some idiot standing on the precipice of the towers, but they didn't want to miss the moment either, if he slipped, or got arrested, or dove, arms stretched.”

“Although Mar would be quite pleased to be consort, Skjaldwulf didn't want to be wolfjarl.He wanted Isolfr, and he would take the damned job that went with it, if he could win it, if that was what it took.”

“He didn't know why the Shadows wanted the brother and sister, but if he allowed himself to dwell on it too long he knew in his gut that finding them meant their deaths.So he didn't allow himself to think about it.”

“None of them knew that it wasn't because he was a nice guy; it was because he was one of them. The hard reality was that life had put them all where they didn't want to be, namely on their backs for people they didn't want to be fucking.”

“He didn't know what he wanted. He only knew what he didn't want.”