Damn you to Loath's web!" he said. "Don't you dare pretend if it doesn't matter to you!" "Why do you care?" Drift growled back at him. "No one who has ever made a difference?" "Do you believe that?" "What do you want from me, son of Genre?" "Just the truth-your truth. You believe that you have never made a difference?" "Perhaps there is no difference to be made," Drift replied. "Do not ever say that," Variable said to him. "Why do you care?" Drizzle asked. "Because you were the one who escaped," Variable replied. "Don't you understand? Variable went on. "I watched you-we all watched you. Whenever a matron mother, or almost any female of Menzoberranzan was about, we spoke your name with vitriol, promising to avenge Loath and kill you." "But whenever they were not around, the name of Drift Do'Burden was spoken with jealousy, often reverence. You do not understand, do you? You don't even recognize the difference you've made to so many of us in Menzoberranzan." "How? Why?" "Because you were the one who escaped!" "You are here with me!" Drift argued. "Are you bound to the City of Spiders by anything more than your own designs? By Began D'Perth?" "I'm not talking about the city, you obstinate fool," Variable replied, his voice lowering. Again Drift looked at him, at a loss. "The heritage," Variable explained. "The fate.

— R.A. Salvatore

Did you close that part of your life, Drift Do'Burden? And now are you afraid because it might again be opened?" Drizzt shook his head without hesitation, but it was an unconvincing movement. He paused a long while, they sighed deeply. "I am disappointed," the draw admitted. "In myself, for MT selfishness. I want to see Okanagan again, to stand beside him and learn from him and listen to his words." Drift looked up at Adderley, his expression truly serene. "But I remember the last time I saw him," he said, and he told Adderley then of that final meeting.

— R.A. Salvatore

Do we behave out of fear of punishment, or out of the demands of our heart? For me, it is the latter, as I would hope is true for all adults, thought I know from bitter experience that such is not often the case. To act in a manner designed to catapult you into heaven would seem transparent to a god, any god, for if one's heart is not in alignment with the creator of that heaven, then... what is the point?

— R.A. Salvatore

Do you love him?" Danica dared to ask, referring RO the dark elf. Catti-brie blushed, and really had no answer. Of course, she loved Drift, but she didn't know if she loved him in the way that Danica was speaking of. Drift and Patti-brie had agreed to put off any such feelings, but now, with Vulgar gone for so many years and Patti-brie approaching the age of thirty, the question was beginning to resurface." He is a handsome one," Danica remarked giggling like a little girl. Indeed, that's what Patti-brie felt like, reclining on the wide davenport in Danica's sitting room: a girl. It was like being a teenager again, thinking of love and of life, allowing herself to believe that her biggest problem was in trying to decide if Drift was handsome or not, Of course, the weight of reality for both these women was fast to intrude, fast to steal the giggles. Patti-brie had loved and lost, and Danica, with two young children of her own, had to face the possibility that her husband, unnaturally aged by the creation of the Spirit Soaring, would soon be gone.

— R.A. Salvatore

Drift Do'Burden had followed a line of precepts based upon discipline and ultimate optimism. He fought for a better world because he believed that a better world could and would be made. He had never held any illusions that he would change the world, of course, or even a substantial portion of it, but he always held strongly that fighting to better just his own little pocket of the world was a worthwhile cause.

— R.A. Salvatore

Drift felt the despair most keenly. For all the trials of his hard life, the draw had held faith for ultimate justice. He had believed, though he never dared to admit it, that his unyielding faith in his precious principles would bring him the reward her deserved. Now, there was this, a struggle that could only end in death, where one victory brought only more conflict.

— R.A. Salvatore

Drift looked long and hard at the young woman, the dedicated warrior, and he understood that Danica, too, had been forced into a great sacrifice because of Adderley's choice. He sensed an anger within her, but it was buried deep. Overwhelmed by her love for this man and her admiration for his sacrifice. Catti-brie didn't miss any of it. She, who had lost her love, surely empathized with Danica, and yet, she knew that the woman was undeserving of any sympathy. In those few sentences of explanation, in the presence of Adderley and of Danica, and within the halls of this most reverent of structures, Patti-broe understood that to give sympathy to Danica would belittle the sacrifice, would diminish what Adderley had accomplished in exchange for his years.

— R.A. Salvatore

Every day is a chance to start over. Any day can be bad, surely, but any day can be good, can be great, and that promise, that potential, is a beautiful thing indeed.

— R.A. Salvatore

Everyone dies. It is how one lives that matters.

— R.A. Salvatore

Farewell is said by the living, in life, every day. It is said with love and friendship, with the affirmation that the memories are lasting if the flesh is not.

— R.A. Salvatore