He shook his head pityingly. “This, more than anything else, is what I have never understood about your people. You can roll dice, and understand that the whole game may hinge on one turn of a die. You deal out cards, and say that all a man's fortune for the night may turn upon one hand. But a man's whole life, you sniff at, and say, what, this naught of a human, this fisherman, this carpenter, this thief, this cook, why, what can they do in the great wide world? And so you putter and sputter your lives away, like candles burning in a draft.”“Not all men are destined for greatness,” I reminded him.“Are you sure, Fitz? Are you sure? What good is a life lived as if it made no difference at all to the great life of the world? A sadder thing I cannot imagine. Why shouldn't a mother say to herself, if I raise this child aright, if I love and care for her, she shall live a life that brings joy to those about her, and thus I have changed the world? Why should not the farmer that plants a seed say to his neighbor, this seed I plant today will feed someone, and that is how I change the world today?”“This is philosophy, Fool. I have never had time to study such things.”“No, Fitz, this is life. And no one has time not to think of such things. Each creature in the world should consider this thing, every moment of the heart's beating. Otherwise, what is the point of arising each day?

— Robin Hobb

He thought perhaps it was a woman's way, to come out of such a storm of emotion and pain as if she were a ship emerging onto calm seas. She had seemed, not at peace, but emptied of sorrow. As if she had run out of that particular emotion and no other one arose to take its place.

— Robin Hobb

His absence seemed a solid thing, a burden I must carry in addition to my grief... Yet I knew I would continue to live. Sometimes that knowledge seemed the worst part of my loss.

— Robin Hobb

His face was so ravaged, it was like looking at death itself. Except for the smooth, silvered part of it. By creeping degrees, his human hand lifted. He turned it over, showing a bloody palm. His cracked lips moved. 'Beloved.' He could not say the word, but I knew it. So did his Fool.

— Robin Hobb

His face was so ravaged, it was like looking at death itself. Except for the smooth, silvered part of it. By creeping degrees, his human hand lifted. He turned it over, showing a bloody palm. His cracked lips moved. Beloved. He could not say the word, but I knew it. So did his Fool.

— Robin Hobb

History is no more fixed and dead than the future. The past is no further away than the last breath you took.

— Robin Hobb

Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there anymore.

— Robin Hobb

How often does a man know, without question, that he has done well? I do not think it often happens in anyone's life, and it becomes even rarer once one has a child.

— Robin Hobb

Humans could never accept the world as it was and live in it. They were always breaking it and living amongst the shattered pieces.

— Robin Hobb

I am shocked to find that some people think a 2 star 'I liked it' rating is a bad rating. What? I liked it. I LIKED it! That means I read the whole thing, to the last page, in spite of my life raining comets on me. It's a good book that survives the reading process with me. If a book is so-so, it ends up under the bed somewhere, or maybe under a stinky judo bag in the back of the van. So a 2 star from me means, yes, I liked the book, and I'd loan it to a friend, and it went everywhere in my jacket pocket or purse until I finished it. A 3-star means that I've ignored friends to finish it and my sink is full of dirty dishes. A 4-star means I'm probably in trouble with my editor for missing a deadline because I was reading this book. But I want you to know. . . I don't finish books I don't like. There are too many good ones out there waiting to be found. Robin Hobby, author

— Robin Hobb