103
" I am no critic. Merely a humble observer who, when able, speaks on behalf of the tongue-tied multitudes otherwise known as the commonalty, or, more precisely, the rabble. An audience, understand, wholly incapable of self-realization or cogent articulation, and thus possessors of depressingly vulgar tastes when not apprised of what they truly like, if only they knew it. My meagre gift, therefore, lies in the communication of an aesthetic framework upon which most artists hang themselves "
― Steven Erikson , Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3)
109
" Midnight comes often in the dusk of my life,
when I look back upon all that I have survived.
The deaths of so many for whom I cared and
loved in my heart, have expunged all sense of
glory from my thoughts. To have escaped those
random fates has lost all triumph. I know you have seen me, friend, my lined
face and silent regard, the cold calcretions that
slow my embittered pace, as I walk down the
last years, clothed in darkness as are all old
men, haunted by memories … "
― Steven Erikson , Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3)