Lev Grossman Quotes

Words have power. The power to soothe. The power to skewer someone through the heart. The power to render someone speechless.

Words are like weapons; they wound sometimes.

I've gotten my butt kicked by the best. Jet Li beat me up the best, but Steven Segal can still kick a good butt. It's a different kind of kicking, though.

Word - that invisible dagger.

I think I'm a boxer, but then when I get hurt, I'll start scrapping.

I think there's a part of a woman that wants to be the thing that breaks a man down.

I dished out and suffered my fair share of bloody noses.

Sometimes words are harder than blows.

Boxing was not something I truly enjoyed. Like a lot of things in life, when you put the gloves on, it's better to give than to receive.

An emotion is suggested and demolished in one glance by certain words.

During the fight you really don't feel much; you've got so much adrenaline going. Luckily I've mostly been on the winning side, so I haven't felt much pain inside the octagon.

War is not beautiful. Sometimes you see action sequences where battles seem organized. I know that from how the Vikings fought. It's not beautiful. It's hard. It's hard work.

Emotionally, light very much influences, I feel, the audience. It's not something that most audience members are conscious of, which is a good thing, because it means as filmmakers, we have the opportunity to gently control an audience into feeling a certain way.

I broke people's bones, tore muscles, ribs, faces, inflicted some serious and heavy damages to my opponents, etc... I got hurt myself, too, from serious attacks.

Brock Lesnar is not a fighter. He's scared to be hit.

The squared circle's no pretty place to be, and there's nothin' sweet about it.

When I am in the ring, all I think about is knocking my opponent's head off, getting him out of there. Hurting him. Putting pain to him. I will have no mercy. I will have no pity.

His heart is kind and those big hands are soft. He speaks a language that can change what I believe.

Sometimes questions can be more cruel than insults.

Persuasion is effected through the medium of the hearers, when they shall have been brought to a state of excitement under the influence of speech; for we do not, when influenced by pain or joy, or partiality or dislike, award our decisions in the same way; about which means of persuasion alone, I declare that the system-mongers of the present day busy themselves.

I was just fighting dwarves then hit my knee really hard.

The purpose of all opprobrious language is, not to describe, but to hurt - even when, like Hamlet, we make only the shadow-passes of a soliloquised combat. We call the enemy not what we think he is but what we think he would least like to be called.

The quicker, the louder, the applause with which another tries to gain you over to his purpose - the bitterer his censure if he miss his aim.

Words could be just as deadly as steel.

I cross my arms. "It was a two minute conversation." "I don't think a smaller time frame makes it less unwise." He furrows his eyebrows and touches the corner of my bruised eye with his fingertips. My head jerks back, but he doesn't take his hand away. Instead he sighs. "You know, if you could just learn to attack first, you might do better." "Attack first?" I say. "How will that help?" "You're fast. If you can get a few good hits in before they know what's going on, you could win." He shrugs, and his hand falls.