Most of them don't actually care who wins because they understand it's just about who sits on the throne, they know the Crusaders aren't here to try to actually harm the city itself. All the potential emperors are assholes, and they're all related to each other, it hardly matters which one wins. So the citizens are literally picnicking and placing bets on who wins the day.

Another quote →

More quotes by Neal Stephenson

All Neal Stephenson quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Neal Stephenson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.