Against Walls Quotes

“Our children aren't here to fix our mistakes, but to have lives, lives we can't guess at.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“In steppe epic, a steed and a sister are your trustiest, most intelligent and indefatigable aid: the hero doesn't have to be heroic, but these do.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“A howl, neither human nor animal but from a creature not invented yet, punctuated their departure. It was Jochi's battlecry, that he had worked on for years.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“Besides, they cast an eye to the past, they didn't disgrace the ground they trod and they believed in the future again. That's what a victory does for you.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“Temujin nodded. He had every intention to do his bit in the battle, like his mother.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“Temujin had had not the slightest notion that bad emotion can just grow and grow from inside you and squeeze out the universe.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“And I saw you and I thought, she'd be a cosy fit inside my arm.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“Evil is abstract but existent. It's a negativity: untruth, dishonesty, abuse of trust. Evil, for us, isn't in-built - into people, into the cosmic scheme, but is a violation.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“The gallantry was the women's. ... The woman's chivalry in such circumstances is obviously expected.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“Temujin watched Borte's ballet, her elegance on the fulcrum of her hips.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“And what did Bo'orchu answer? "Kids For Nokods." After that they ran away.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“Hoelun stepped into her tent with thyme in her coatskirts that were hitched up in her belt, and leeks in her hat, that was off. The blue spire of bark she had worn as Yesugei's wife never left her, but often did more than perch on her head.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“They met eyes and had a moment and had to glance elsewhere.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“People, and boys the worst, are so much more intelligent than what comes out of their mouths.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“Spring weather is turbulent. Every afternoon for a fortnight a gang of bruise-coloured clouds grumbling with their brew slunk up to the massy black stone of the tor. After a face-off of pops and hisses the clouds slunk south, to burst into storm on the horizon.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“It wasn't that Yesugei was harsh, but people found a sad eye from him very hard to stand.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“For a few heady weeks of the year the steppe in a binge throws out a wilderness of flowers that tangle your hooves and confuse your horse.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls

“Perceptions? Yesugei didn't give a goat's toenail about perceptions, but society was society. ...

'Who gives a billy's balls what one or two wives have to say?'

'Quite, father.' This was strong language, to cite the nether parts, stronger than toenails.”
― Bryn Hammond, Against Walls