Robert E Howard :
When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
The people scattered gold-dust before my horses feet;
But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back.
#
Murder
#
Books - Reading
#
Love
Gift it
![Powerpoint](http://www.iwise.com/downloadPPT.php?quote_id=89101&author=Robert E Howard"e=When+I+was+a+fighting-man%2C+the+kettle-drums+they+beat%2C%0AThe+people+scattered+gold-dust+before+my+horses+feet%3B%0ABut+now+I+am+a+great+king%2C+the+people+hound+my+track%0AWith+poison+in+my+wine-cup%2C+and+daggers+at+my+back.&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwise.com%2FauthorIcons%2F14178%2FRobert+E_Howard_64x64.png){kind=link}
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![Powerpoint](http://www.iwise.com/downloadPPT.php?quote_id=6020&author=Paul Goodman"e=++There+is+such+a+thing+as+food+and+such+a+thing+as+poison.+But+the+damage+done+by+those+who+pass+off+poison+as+food+is+far+less+than+that+done+by+those+who+generation+after+generation+convince+people+that+food+is+poison.&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwise.com%2FauthorIcons%2F525%2FPaul+Goodman_64x64.png){kind=link}
![Powerpoint](http://www.iwise.com/downloadPPT.php?quote_id=89109&author=Robert E Howard"e=He+shrugged+his+shoulders.+%22I+have+known+many+gods.+He+who+denies+them+is+as+blind+as+he+who+trusts+them+too+deeply.+I+seek+not+beyond+death.+It+may+be+the+blackness+averred+by+the+Nemedian+skeptics%2C+or+Crom%27s+realm+of+ice+and+cloud%2C+or+the+snowy+plains+and+vaulted+halls+of+the+Nordheimer%27s+Valhalla.+I+know+not%2C+nor+do+I+care.+Let+me+live+deep+while+I+live%3B+let+me+know+the+rich+juices+of+red+meat+and+stinging+wine+on+my+palate%2C+the+hot+embrace+of+white+arms%2C+the+mad+exultation+of+battle+when+the+blue+blades+flame+and+crimson%2C+and+I+am+content.+Let+teachers+and+priests+and+philosophers+brood+over+questions+of+reality+and+illusion.+I+know+this%3A+if+life+is+illusion%2C+then+I+am+no+less+an+illusion%2C+and+being+thus%2C+the+illusion+is+real+to+me.+I+live%2C+I+burn+with+life%2C+I+love%2C+I+slay%2C+and+am+content.%22&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwise.com%2FauthorIcons%2F14178%2FRobert+E_Howard_64x64.png){kind=link}
![Powerpoint](http://www.iwise.com/downloadPPT.php?quote_id=89131&author=Robert E Howard"e=It+seems+to+me+that+many+writers%2C+by+virtue+of+environments+of+culture%2C+art+and+education%2C+slip+into+writing+because+of+their+environments.+I+became+a+writer+in+spite+of+my+environments.+Understand%2C+I+am+not+criticizing+those+environments.+They+were+good%2C+solid+and+worthy.+The+fact+that+they+were+not+inducive+to+literature+and+art+is+nothing+in+their+disfavor.+Never+the+less%2C+it+is+no+light+thing+to+enter+into+a+profession+absolutely+foreign+and+alien+to+the+people+among+which+one%27s+lot+is+cast%3B+a+profession+which+seems+as+dim+and+faraway+and+unreal+as+the+shores+of+Europe.+The+people+among+which+I+lived+%E2%80%94+and+yet+live%2C+mainly+%E2%80%94+made+their+living+from+cotton%2C+wheat%2C+cattle%2C+oil%2C+with+the+usual+percentage+of+business+men+and+professional+men.+That+is+most+certainly+not+in+their+disfavor.+But+the+idea+of+a+man+making+his+living+by+writing+seemed%2C+in+that+hardy+environment%2C+so+fantastic+that+even+today+I+am+sometimes+myself+assailed+by+a+feeling+of+unreality.+Never+the+less%2C+at+the+age+of+fifteen%2C+having+never+seen+a+writer%2C+a+poet%2C+a+publisher+or+a+magazine+editor%2C+and+having+only+the+vaguest+ideas+of+procedure%2C+I+began+working+on+the+profession+I+had+chosen.+I+have+accomplished+little+enough%2C+but+such+as+it+is%2C+it+is+the+result+of+my+own+efforts.+I+had+neither+expert+aid+nor+advice.+I+studied+no+courses+in+writing%3B+until+a+year+or+so+ago%2C+I+never+read+a+book+by+anybody+advising+writers+how+to+write.+Ordinarily+I+had+no+access+to+public+libraries%2C+and+when+I+did%2C+it+was+to+no+such+libraries+as+exist+in+the+cities.+Until+recently+%E2%80%94+a+few+weeks+ago+in+fact+%E2%80%94+I+employed+no+agent.+I+have+not+been+a+success%2C+and+probably+never+will+be.+But+whatever+my+failure%2C+I+have+this+thing+to+remember+%E2%80%94+that+I+was+a+pioneer+in+my+profession%2C+just+as+my+grandfathers+were+in+theirs%2C+in+that+I+was+the+first+man+in+this+section+to+earn+his+living+as+a+writer.%0A&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwise.com%2FauthorIcons%2F14178%2FRobert+E_Howard_64x64.png){kind=link}
![Powerpoint](http://www.iwise.com/downloadPPT.php?quote_id=89123&author=Robert E Howard"e=Arus+the+watchman+grasped+his+crossbow+with+shaky+hands%2C+and+he+felt+beads+of+clammy+perspiration+on+his+skin+as+he+stared+at+the+unlovely+corpse+sprawling+on+the+polished+floor+before+him.+It+is+not+pleasant+to+come+upon+Death+in+a+lonely+place+at+midnight...&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwise.com%2FauthorIcons%2F14178%2FRobert+E_Howard_64x64.png){kind=link}
![Powerpoint](http://www.iwise.com/downloadPPT.php?quote_id=89099&author=Robert E Howard"e=Know%2C+oh+prince%2C+that+between+the+years+when+the+oceans+drank+Atlantis+and+the+gleaming+cities%2C+and+the+years+of+the+rise+of+the+Sons+of+Aryas%2C+there+was+an+Age+undreamed+of%2C+when+shining+kingdoms+lay+spread+across+the+world+like+blue+mantles+beneath+the+stars+-+Nemedia%2C+Ophir%2C+Brythunia%2C+Hyberborea%2C+Zamora+with+its+dark-haired+women+and+towers+of+spider-haunted+mystery%2C+Zingara+with+its+chivalry%2C+Koth+that+bordered+on+the+pastoral+lands+of+Shem%2C+Stygia+with+its+shadow-guarded+tombs%2C+Hyrkania+whose+riders+wore+steel+and+silk+and+gold.+But+the+proudest+kingdom+of+the+world+was+Aquilonia%2C+reigning+supreme+in+the+dreaming+west.&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwise.com%2FauthorIcons%2F14178%2FRobert+E_Howard_64x64.png){kind=link}
![Powerpoint](http://www.iwise.com/downloadPPT.php?quote_id=89133&author=Robert E Howard"e=You+express+amazement+at+my+statement+that+%27civilized%27+men+try+to+justify+their+looting%2C+butchering+and+plundering+by+claiming+that+these+things+are+done+in+the+interests+of+art%2C+progress+and+culture.+That+this+simple+statement+of+fact+should+cause+surprize%2C+amazes+me+in+return.+People+claiming+to+possess+superior+civilization+have+always+veneered+their+rapaciousness+by+such+claims...%0AYour+friend+Mussolini+is+a+striking+modern-day+example.+In+that+speech+of+his+I+heard+translated+he+spoke+feelingly+of+the+expansion+of+civilization.+From+time+to+time+he+has+announced%3B+%27The+sword+and+civilization+go+hand+in+hand%21%27+%27Wherever+the+Italian+flag+waves+it+will+be+as+a+symbol+of+civilization%21%27+%27Africa+must+be+brought+into+civilization%21%27+It+is+not%2C+of+course%2C+because+of+any+selfish+motive+that+he+has+invaded+a+helpless+country%2C+bombing%2C+burning+and+gassing+both+combatants+and+non-combatants+by+the+thousands.+Oh%2C+no%2C+according+to+his+own+assertions+it+is+all+in+the+interests+of+art%2C+culture+and+progress%2C+just+as+the+German+war-lords+were+determined+to+confer+the+advantages+of+Teutonic+Kultur+on+a+benighted+world%2C+by+fire+and+lead+and+steel.+Civilized+nations+never%2C+never+have+selfish+motives+for+butchering%2C+raping+and+looting%3B+only+horrid+barbarians+have+those.%0A&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwise.com%2FauthorIcons%2F14178%2FRobert+E_Howard_64x64.png){kind=link}
![Powerpoint](http://www.iwise.com/downloadPPT.php?quote_id=89096&author=Robert E Howard"e=What+do+I+know+of+cultured+ways%2C+the+gilt%2C+the+craft+and+the+lie%3F%0AI%2C+who+was+born+in+a+naked+land+and+bred+in+the+open+sky.%0AThe+subtle+tongue%2C+the+sophist+guile%2C+they+fail+when+the+broadswords+sing%3B%0ARush+in+and+die%2C+dogs%E2%80%94I+was+a+man+before+I+was+a+king.&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iwise.com%2FauthorIcons%2F14178%2FRobert+E_Howard_64x64.png){kind=link}
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