c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
She imagined him leaning against the shuttle, entertaining thoughts of scolding her for dressing like a ragged commoner. Never mind that her present outfit was light years ahead in comfort.(Actually, he’s wishing he had been less critical of you earlier. He feels bad that you won’t acknowledge his presence, and he blames himself.)(Quit it, Ian. I’m not going to feel sorry for him.)She caught her protector’s shrewd grin, highlighted by the fire’s glow. (You already do, Queenie.)(This talent of yours is really annoying.)He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “That’s not what you thought earlier when you wanted to get ahold of Efren.” “One tiny rosebud in a handful of thorns,” she retorted.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Eena, The Curse of Wanyaka Cave
Sleep my baby, rock-a-bye,On the edge you must not lie.Wolf the Fluffy roams astray,Will he grab you, drag away?Into Furthest Darkest Woods,Hide you under Willow roots?There birdies chirp and squeak,Will they let you fall asleep?
— Stanislaw Sielicki, Handsome Yeva: An Indo-European Tale: Reconstruction Based on Balto-Slavic Folklore and Parallels with Other Indo-European Myths
I hate you, Edgar. I hate you with all my heart.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Eena, The Curse of Wanyaka Cave
Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades.
— Loveless
Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades
— Loveless, from The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
It’s just you always…”	“Run,” I finish for him…	I gaze up at him. Soft light plays over his striking features – the hard planes of his cheekbones, his strong jaw, the slight hook in his nose. “I’ll still run, Griffin. The difference now is that I’ll run to you.”	He looks at me for a long time, his gray eyes inscrutable. “You’d better.”	I arch an eyebrow. “Or you’ll spank me?
— Amanda Bouchet, Breath of Fire
The mirror sighed and spoke in a tone tinged with melancholy. Its language was old and not of any of the worlds known or unknown.What you dream, what you darkly desire,Find it by trial or by fire.Seek it high and seek it low,Search the skies or the realms below.Look everywhere but beware,The deepest magic, the strongest spellWill not change what the stars foretell.
— Sukanya Venkatraghavan, Dark Things
The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary. Having that real though limited power to put established institutions into question, imaginative literature has also the responsibility of power. The storyteller is the truthteller.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks & Essays on the Writer, the Reader & the Imagination
What is the difference between a dream and its memory?
— Sukanya Venkatraghavan, Dark Things
Some people spend their whole lives in a fantasy world, and that’s not a good thing!
— Rebecca McNutt, Mandy and Alecto: The Collected Smog City Book Series
I've spent my life wondering when I would earn the right to be a man again. Despite the undeserved good fortune of finding my true love, I always held a kernel of bitterness in my heart that things were not different... I will never be the man that I was. That man is dead—slain—for better or for worse, by my life as the Beast. In your words, the world does not need who I was.
— Jack Heckel, A Fairy-tale Ending
Being on the edge is always worse than going through
— Joseph  Brown, The Battle for Guiniloupay: Through the Ages of Guiniloupay, Book One
Those who believe in it are the ones who find it.
— Sandesh Hukpachongbang
Have a scaffold erected in the square. We shall hang a traitor or two before dinner. And perhaps afterwards as well.” - Princess Karena
— Thaddeus White, Kingdom Asunder
Have a scaffold erected in the square. We shall hang a traitor or two before dinner. And perhaps afterwards as well.
— Thaddeus White, Kingdom Asunder
Those who believe in it are the ones who find it
— Sandesh limbu
Duncan yawned and scratched at a spot on his temple. “According to my reckoning, you shall be punished thusly. Hanged twice, for major theft and unlawfully slaying a beast in the Comte’s forest. Lashed… let me see… four hundred and twenty-seven times for adultery, fornication and minor theft. Lastly, imprisoned for tax evasion and rigging boxing matches for,” the lieutenant paused and totted up the list of offences, “Ninety-six years.”Roger the Goat nodded gravely, and asked, “In what order?
— Thaddeus White, Bane of Souls
He was like nothing she’d ever known.Marcii hoped she would come to know him, for he was all she could ever have asked for and more.
— Ross  Turner, Reaper
There's about six original people in the world. The rest of everybody else are copycats. When it comes to religion and politics, ninety percent of people do what their parents did and think they made up their minds for themselves. They watch the news to see what the latest trends are.
— Roland Merullo, American Savior: A Novel of Divine Politics
Secrets are dark things. They don’t exist in the light. Theyglow faintly in forgotten corners, in mysterious mind-nooks,in lost memory maps. Secrets are the shadows of the soul.
— Sukanya Venkatraghavan, Dark Things
That which does not kill you ... probably isn't close enough, so just start running.
— Matthew D. Ryan
The hours wear on, while the surreal atmosphere of the asylum does not wear off.
— M.D. Elster, Four Kings
Nowhere on Earth was stupidity prized anymore.
— Mark Landau, The Miracle Revolution
Science Fiction has always attracted more talented writers than it could reward adequately.
— Walter M. Miller Jr., The Science Fiction Stories Of Walter M. Miller, Jr
Too often fantasy is not a rich elaboration of life designed to enhance our existence, rather it is our pell-mell escape from life with the intent of exiting this existence. And the most imaginative fantasy of all is to somehow think that I can do that in the first place.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
I’ve learned that being alone and being lonely are not the same thing. Once I was surrounded by people and lonely for it, but now I’m alone and I’ve never been so content.
— Melinda Salisbury, The Sin Eater’s Daughter
All people are, at heart, egocentric. We exist at the center of our own little universes. We believe that we are living out our lives as best we can, and that we have our own sphere of influence which exists of both friends and enemies. They in turn have their own friends and enemies with whom they interact. That is a given. But we, each of us, tend to put ourselves ahead of others because we believe that we are significant. We must attend to our own needs, desires, wants, and aspirations, because each of us is our own greatest priority. No one else cares for us as much as we do, no one else can exist in our skin. We think we're important. It is where our sense of self-worth comes up, where our egos reside, where "we" are. And we believe that each of our lives means something.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
Fear is the short road to death and this world, Changed by the flux of decay: Survival is the exception for weary men.From the new book The Waning
— Ellen Mae Franklin
Apropos, you're going to have to learn to sooner or later that you can't just let other people decide what the world around you should and shouldn't be.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
You win the Game,” Vitas says. His features obscured under the long black robe, regal-like modesty against our animalistic near nudity.― Ant Ryan, Celestial Spheres
— Ant Ryan, Synapse
Forgive me again.” He lifts the carafe and refreshes his goblet. “What happened to those two children who laughed at dandelion fuzz?” he says softly. “Are they gone forever, do you think?
— Melinda Salisbury, The Sin Eater’s Daughter
Freydolf worried that the stone might have been [stolen], but he finally found it safe and sound in one of the many drawers that were better for losing things than organizing them.
— C. J. Milbrandt
Big changes could come quickly, and he wondered what else might happen to his heart while he wasn't paying attention.
— C. J. Milbrandt, Meadowsweet
He just wants to be heard," Hank said.That's all any of us want. To know that someone hears our pain.
— Kathy Lyons, For the Bear's Eyes Only
He was a demon who dreamed of a Star..  She was a Star who dreamed of Falling..
— Sarah A. Kenney, Devils Fall
Sometimes I replay your dreams in my head to get me by"My heart cracked. "What dreams?""The one where we married and had kids. I used to watch you sleep within your sleep and talk to your belly"In the room in Fairy, I'd gone there to be with Luke knowing it wasn't real. I'd dreamed we had a normal life with kids. "What did you say?""I would tell our child how much I loved you both
— Shannon Dermott, Sacrifice of Mercy
What are you, my father now?""No, but I'm someone who will always love you.""Always?" I question, because even without jealousy, my relationship with Flynn was bound to hurt him."Forever.
— Shannon Dermott, Sacrifice of Mercy
I found heaven today. Her name is Mercy. She didn't see me because I was too tongue-tied to speak to her - Luke
— Shannon Dermott, Sacrifice of Mercy
Lack of movement is a formidable force to overcome.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
What are you dreams, Twylla?”“I – I have none. I have all I want.”“I don’t believe that. You must have some dreams – everyone does.” “I want…I want to be happy,” I say, realizing at once that it’s a stupid thing to say. But to my surprise he’s nodding, a smile tugging at his lips. “I want to be happy too.
— Melinda Salisbury
There are some for whom the good of mankind is their primary concern, and others who basically put their own considerations before everyone else. I was among the latter.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
Noblest. Bravest. What rot. There was no bravery in buying oneself out of difficulty.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
Only in this world of topsy-turvy attitudes could outright stupidity, such as I had displayed, be something that got me high marks. I had an amused glimmering of a notion at that point: If I ever turned out to be a complete and utter fool, I could wind up running the whole kingdom. It was something to consider.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
Some time later, I sat in the wine cellar, staring at the walls while cradling a wineskin in my lap like a child, murmuring over and over as if lulling the child to sleep, 'I am shat upon. I am shat upon'.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
Youth believes itself immortal. There is a cure for such an attitude, but unfortunately it is a cure from which one never recovers.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
In retrospect, I would have to recommend against epiphanies. They are difficult on an emotional level, and they also sometimes move you to foolish and inopportune acts, which was what happened in my case.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
We’re to be married. Does it matter if I permit it?”“To me it does, yes,” says Merek. “And I imagine you, like me, appreciate the illusion of having a choice, even when illusion is all it is.
— Melinda Salisbury, The Sin Eater’s Daughter
Unfortunately, the world does not always act in a manner consistent with one's plans for it.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
I guess it really had been brave . . . because it was so bugger-all stupid, and if there was one thing I'd come to realize, ti was that bravery and bugger-all stupidity went hand in hand.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
But I want you,” he smiles at me. “Not just to make me a king. I’ve always wanted you. Despite it all, you are still the bride I would choose. I do choose you.
— Melinda Salisbury, The Sin Eater’s Daughter
I remember so many things [. . .] The problem is, only half of them are true . . . and the half which is true keeps changing places with the half which is false.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
It seemed to me that, no matter what endeavor I was involved in, I was to be something of a sham.
— Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing
Have I..." I venture, terrified of the potential answer. "Have I gone mad?" "No, no, no." She says. "Okay, oui, peut-être, that depends. Maybe you have gone a little mad, and only for a little spell.
— M.D. Elster, Four Kings
So far I had the god of evil and the god of terror on my side. My good-guy image was taking a serious beating. Maybe I should recruit some unicorns or kittens with rainbow powers to even us out.
— Ilona Andrews, Magic Binds
She believed in magic—the magic of places, the magic of people, the magic of coincidences, serendipity, and fortune. She enjoyed wandering through the world with the open mind and curiosity of a four-year-old child. In her world the mystical, mythical, and magical inhabited the same space and time as the ordinary and the practical. At Bethesda Terrace, she always felt close to a source of magic and creativity. It was as if she was tapping into the place where dragons, angels, gods, sorceresses, and demons came to life.
— Jamie Le Fay, Beginnings
And yet knowing all these mistakes were yours, beautifully yours, and you came out the better for it... the boy I left behind well on his way to becoming an extraordinary man and an extraordinary king." Merlin smiled. "If only from your choice of princess alone.
— Soman Chainani, The Last Ever After
Debilitating guilt crushed Gabriel every time he interacted with Morgan. The Ange'el's affection for the human was weakening his mandate to control her movements and influence her decisions. His task was, once again, to deceive and manipulate. He seemed destined to betray the confidence of those he held most dear.
— Jamie Le Fay, Gravitational Pull
It is said, once a wise man from the far North told me; it is said that there are in certain parts of Scandinavia cities within cities like there are circles within circles; existent yet invisible. And those cities are inhabited by creatures more terrible than imagination can create : man-shaped but man-devouring, as black and as silent as the night they prowl in.
— Johanna Sinisalo, Troll: A Love Story
And yet the night was still fresh: young as new dawn.There was still time for worlds to change, if that was to be their fate.
— Ross  Turner, Reaper
There's no such thing as a limit on being the best. You can always go for more. That's what it means to be human. No... That's what it means to be me. - Claire Stanfield
— Narita Ryohgo
And I realize, so suddenly that it hurts, just how empty a creature can be, while still filled to the brim with drowning agony.
— D.R. Hedge, The Geri Rogue
She has no interest in human quarrels, for they are often petty and always pointless.
— Ross  Turner, Reaper
Just because he was not a monster did not mean he wouldn’t be treated as one.
— Ross  Turner, Reaper
A wolf is clever-clever-clever, and they are as faithful as a debt unpaid.
— Tad Williams, The Dragonbone Chair
We All hate our Daily Lives, That why We Fantasise About that one moment When Fantasy Becomes Our Reality, Then We Love Our Lives
— Look Im A Cat
Humans lose focus of the big picture when they’re drunken in the midst of their feelings. - Tojuro Hattori
— Yuhki Kamatani
The things that we do for love is ugly, mad, full of seat and regret.
— Crimson Peak
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a amazing book, I love it
— Ransom Riggs
Junk?” Lina repeated, incredulous. Oh, she wasn’t about to let that pass.
— Jaleigh Johnson, The Secrets of Solace
When I look at my bookcase and see one book after the other upon its shelves, I think to myself, There is a God.
— Sully Tarnish, The Dragon and the Apprentice: A Wizard's Wager
If this was what it meant to be human, for now she saw more clearly than she ever had done, she didn’t want to be.
— Ross  Turner, Reaper
Whatever you do, don’t make it worse by trying to come up with some flimsy excuse for why you were in the ventilation shaft, Lina told herself.
— Jaleigh Johnson, The Secrets of Solace
She wanted to make sure she studied all the manuals thoroughly, but she had to admit that part of her hesitation was the unsettling length of the list of things that could go wrong if she mishandled the pressure.
— Jaleigh Johnson, The Secrets of Solace
Normally, she would never wish a head injury on anyone, but it might make her days in Archival Studies a bit easier.
— Jaleigh Johnson, The Secrets of Solace
Some thought magic came from the mind, others the soul, or the heart, or the will.
— V.E. Schwab
But what else are secrets for if not discovery? That is their nature. Only time stands between a mystery and its rightful master.
— Usman T. Malik, The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn
Never accept help from a dragon. Dragons do not offer help. They offer fate.
— Steven Poore, The High King's Vengeance
I didn't want to be different, even among the different.
— K.L. Kranes, The Travelers
I am just a broken soul wearing a person as a costume.
— K.L. Kranes, The Travelers
Love is the only emotion so unexplainable and unique, that not even the greatest of writers could hope to contain it within their meagre words.
— Ross  Turner, Reaper
There is nothing so nice as supposing. It's almost like being a fairy. If you suppose anything hard enough it seems as if it were real.
— Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess
It felt like betrayal, finding joy even in little things when Willow was in danger.
— Melanie  Crowder, A Nearer Moon
No amount of speed could break me of this darkness... The sorrow is ever clinging to me.
— D.R. Hedge, The Geri Rogue
The villagers marked the time in two ways: before the swamp and after. What came before was good. And all that came after was not.
— Melanie Crowder
What the hell is wrong with you?" Westin growled as they entered the house. Lia twirled a bit."I am in a good mood. Is that not allowed?""For most people, yes, it's preferred. On you, it's creepy. What's up?
— Abbie Chandler
Why does anything cling to something? Maybe they love wherever they're going so much that it's worth it. Maybe they'll keep coming back, until there's only one star left. Maybe that one star will make the trip forever, out of the hope that someday—if it keeps coming back often enough—another star will find it again.
— Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury
Get off me!" Badger tried to roll away, but Azrael held his palms over the baker's eyes again and more white light poured out. "You're blinding me! Stop!""No," said Azrael."Please!""I can't hear you over the sound of my total indifference.
— Mirriam Neal, Paper Crowns
A coffin... I'm in a coffin.The stories told to frighten children and old men, of warriors injured in battle and believed dead by their comrades, only to wake up buried six feet beneath the ground, assailed me and i started to breathe too quickly, using too much air. Already i felt as if i was suffocating, trapped underground. Had they thought i'd lost too much blood? Was my heartbeat too soft or slow? Could Kest and Brasti truly have been foolish enough to think that-?BrastiI bellowed, and the sound of my voice echoed over the surface of the wood around me, "I'm going to fucking kill you this time you heartless son of a bitch!"A distant guffaw was followed by the sound of footsteps running towards me and brasti calling, "Hang on, hang on, I'm coming..."Blinding candlelight forced me to close my eyes as my prison lifted off me, and when i opened them again i saw that i hadn't actually been inside the coffin at all- Brasti had just removed the lid from one and flipped the rest over top of me.
— Sebastien de Castell, Saint's Blood
Do you think there could be a universe next door?
— Jaclyn Moriarty, The Cracks in the Kingdom
This isn't the hand of some swooning princess who sits tatting lace and waiting for some prince to save her. This is the hand of a woman who would climb a rope of her own hair to freedom, or kill a captor ogre in his sleep. And this is the hand of a woman who would have made it through the fire on her own if I hadn't been there. Singed perhaps, but safe.
— Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler.
— Frodo Baggins
I’m a blank canvas that I can paint however I desire. For the first time ever, I get to be the character in my own fantasy land.
— E.K. Blair
Where are you going?" she called after me, her voice mocking. "What's waiting for you out there?" "Nothing!" I shouted at her. "No one!
— Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone
You don’t approve?” Joan asked, picking up on Delphine’s tone. “Their stories were for themselves, not the Mirrors.”“What do you mean?” said Bea.“Certainly sometimes a good little character would find a lamp, and would not be so corrupted by the strangely endless possibilities of three wishes that they ended up causing more harm than they ever imagined. Those stories fostered belief, they were retold, certainly; but they were few and far between. Most of the genie’s tales showed the characters exactly who they really were, not when they were despised and degraded, not when they’d reached the gutter and been given licence to look at the stars. No, the genies showed them who they were when they were invincible. The characters, they try to forget stories like that.
— F.D.  Lee, The Fairy's Tale
How can we learn the value of saying no, if we didn’t occasionally say yes?
— F.D.  Lee, The Fairy's Tale
Mistasinon stood as the music of life flowed around him, the instrument of his agency muted.
— F.D.  Lee, The Fairy's Tale
She was here and the world, for so long ugly and deformed, was all at once itself again. She was taking a glass of sweet wine from one of the waiters. She was smiling. She was breathing. She was here. She was an island of such colossal importance within a sea of inconsequence that it seemed impossible the Ball was able to continue its empty existence.
— F.D.  Lee, The Fairy's Tale
The woman above him had tumbled out of his dreams, and now stood like a half-waking ghost, a photograph double exposed, showing him in one moment the fallacy of his past as it bled into his future. The image of Maria Sophia had grown too large for him to bear. He had made it so. In his industry and creativity he had transformed her into something so wonderful that the very fact she might now be anything less terrified him almost as much as the prospect she might exceed it.
— F.D.  Lee, The Fairy's Tale
I just think when extraordinary people are discovered, extraordinary exceptions should be made. " ~ Sarajane From Eden Forest (Part one of the Saskia Trilogy)
— Aoife Marie Sheridan, Eden Forest
However much this annoyed me, it is accepted practice for a duellist's supporters to cheer them on- in fact, i was entitled to similar outbursts from my own admirers.'This Undriel fellow really is remarkably skilled,'Kest remarked.Undriel. That was the bastard's name.Brasti came to my defence, after a fashion. 'It's not Falcio's fault. He's getting old. And slow. Also, i think he might be getting fat. Just look at him- barely four months since he beat Shuran and already he's half the man he once was.'Always nice to have friends nearby in troubled times, i thought, batting at Undriel's blade with a clumsy parry that was testament to my increasing exhaustion.
— Sebastien de Castell, Saint's Blood
The writing of fantasy is best left to those who have nothing better to do, as is indicated by the fairy tales of otherwise gifted writers like Robert Graves and John Ciardi. It isn't so much the difficulty of doing it right, without falling off the tightrope into the cold pits of allegory or mindless whimsy‌—‌the weary thing is that even if you bring it off, all you've done is write a fantasy, and so what? Life is dangerous, and escapism has become a dirty word. I feel the same way, being a child of my own critical times. I'd write the other stuff, the real books, if I could. Plenty nitty-gritty. If I could.
— Peter S. Beagle
It was a Guild of Assassins, after all. Black was what you wore. The night was black and so were you. And black had such style, and an Assassin without style, everyone agreed, was just a highly paid arrogant thug.
— Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
It’s amazing what desperation can do to a person. It can seep into the heart. Turn us into the very monsters we fight." -Vexis
— C.M.  Hayden, The Reach Between Worlds
Sorcerers believe that an action taken for the right reasons has an unreasonable chance of success.
— Gail Carson Levine, The Two Princesses of Bamarre
The love of Arda was set in your hearts by Ilúvatar, and he does not plant to no purpose.
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
Few men are a threat to a fully-trained w
— Scott Robert Scheller, Haunted Tree
This is what a castle sounded like when it died, and he knew he would never forget it.
— Steven Poore, The Heir to the North
Here's a tragedy for you. Arca the Brave, one of the last heroes of Cape Magister, the man who held the line at the Usurper's Fields, who saw even the mighty Guhl fall and die... now he sleeps on my floor and begs for scraps like a dog. Perhaps there are some wars that are not worth fighting.
— Steven Poore, The Heir to the North
Fireball doesn’t need a search warrant.
— Bryan Fields, Dragon's Luck: The Dragonbound Chronicles
I will never understand why you Humans weren’t designed to recycle your body’s water after filtering waste. It’s just so much more efficient.
— Bryan Fields, Dragon's Luck: The Dragonbound Chronicles
It is dangerous to become attached to a du Lac. He will break your heart, and you will not recover.
— Mary Anne Yarde, The Du Lac Chronicles: Book 1
Once upon a time there was war, and starvation, and death. Once upon a time we would kill our brothers and sisters, fearing for our own lives. Once upon a time the characters turned from us, and we wept. Now we do not war, nor do we fear, nor do we weep. We Redact.
— F.D.  Lee, The Fairy's Tale
Folks love fantasy. Beasts the shit outta reality and day of the week.
— Garth Ennis, The Boys, Volume 3: Good For The Soul
The finding of the Valley is paramount for your kind. Survival for your race…even survival for the human race…depends on it. This quest is more important than you can ever understand. It will affect every living thing in this world for millennia to come. Do not waver from the search, no matter how difficult it may be.
— Simon Skiles, Sanctuary
I can’t take back the past, Nadya. Not even we Unicorns can do that. But I’ll be damned if someone else is going to control our future. I’ve been away for too long, and I will always regret not being there for the Rourakin. But I have returned, and I am not leaving again.
— Simon Skiles, Return
How else do I describe what I see…what I feel? When I look at a plant, I do not see a green object. I see Life. I see energy. I see a will to exist like no other. When I see an animal, I see more than fur and bone and blood. I see Love. Love is all around us. And in us. And through us. Love is us. It is everywhere. I see it. I feel it. I hear it. I only wish all of you could, too. If you could experience what I do every moment of every day, there would be no anger, no hate, no killing. I want to share what I know with the entire universe, but my words fall on deaf ears. People go right on fighting and hating and killing. And there is nothing I can do.
— Simon Skiles, Memoirs of a Unicorn: Love
Time is indifferent of the events and triumphs and tragedies of mankind, and really even, for the most part, of its own inexorable passage.
— Ross  Turner, Voices in the Mirror
He had an image in his mind of a gaggle of long-necked geese, all done up in petticoats and crinolines, sitting around a stuffy parlor and talking about him.
— Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar
Death drives desire.
— Rosemary A. Johns
Zane was pretty sure that worries and bossing were related, like a pair of old aunties.
— C.J. Milbrandt, Into the Hills: A Zane Johns Adventure
Oh. Sure. It makes perfect sense. Zane is a wolf because his father is an eagle.
— C.J. Milbrandt, Into the Hills: A Zane Johns Adventure
They say that to live in the Wilds, you have to be half-wild yourself. Or at least very brave. And Zane is both.
— C.J. Milbrandt, Into the Hills: A Zane Johns Adventure
Do you mean that Zane is some kind of bird magnet?
— C.J. Milbrandt, Into the Hills: A Zane Johns Adventure
Blood Life is not hunger. It’s freedom
— Rosemary A. Johns
I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler. -Frodo Baggins
— J.R.R. Tolkien
Adventure is something that happens to someone else. When it's happening to you, it's only trouble.
— Gerald Morris, The Ballad of Sir Dinadan
He gazed into eyes the color of a summer morning sky and sighed. It felt as if his soul had just come home.
— Grace Willows, Into My Heart
But remember: what belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.--Nereid
— Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
...Power is lost or won, never created or destroyed. Power is a visitor to, not a possession of, those it empowers. The mad tend to crave it, many of the sane crave it, but the wise worry about its long-term effects. Power is crack cocaine for your ego and battery acid for your soul. Power’s comings and goings, from host to host, via war, marriage, ballet box, diktat, and accident of birth, are the plot of history. The empowered may serve justice, remodel the Earth, transform lush nations into smoking battlefields, and bring down skyscrapers, but power itself is amoral.” Immaculée Constantin now looks up at me. “Power will notice you. Power is watching you now. Carry on as you are, and power will favor you. But power will also laugh at you, mercilessly, as you lie dying in a private clinic, a few fleeting decades from now. Power mocks all its illustrious favorites as they lie dying…
— David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks
Eventually every man reaches a point where every memory is unwelcome
— Steven Erikson, Deadhouse Gates
Ay, you've already seen that you and your master aren't quite at home in this world, at least not like before.' Terence nodded slowly. 'It'll only get stronger, too,' Robin continued. 'Soon you'll find yourself looking into people's eyes to see if they've been there. And once you find someone who has, you'll greet him as a long-lost friend and take him to your heart.
— Gerald Morris, The Squire's Tale
Each day Marda gets closer. The sub circles coral reefs off the coasts, where mermaids are said to like the colors of the schools of fishes, and train them to swim around their necks like jewelry or live behind their ears, beneath their long hair. Sometimes mermaids like shallow places, but mostly they like the dark and the beautiful, uncharted, abandoned, soulless parts of the undiscovered world.
— Holly Walrath, Pulp Literature Summer 2015: Issue 7
Because my weakness has always been her, it would always be her.
— Rachel Van Dyken, The Matchmaker's Replacement
Then Tak looked upon the stone and it was trying to come alive, and Tak smiled, and wrote All things strive.And for the service the stone had given, he fashioned it into the first Troll, and delighted in the life that came unbidden.
— Terry Pratchett, Thud!
Also, in the dismal Cold Waste, any man treasures illusions, though knowing them almost certainly to be such.
— Fritz Leiber, Swords Against Wizardry
Are you educated in the art of medicine?” Yeah, the art of Walgreens and Urgent Care. “A bit,” I hedged.
— Lisa Tawn Bergren
Do not fear death, fear sleeping without waking up instead.
— ABC
Words didn’t come. I couldn’t formulate a thought. I was too startled. These three figures lying in the sand in front of me weren’t surfers at all. They weren’t even people. From their facial features and upper torsos, they looked kind of like women, but all three of them had silver-colored skin. They were bald, with strange ridges marking their skulls. None of them seemed to have ears, only holes in the sides of their heads. No nose was visible, not even a bone or nostrils filled that space between their eyes and mouths. Although their mouths seemed to be moving, they were actually breathing through what looked like gills in their necks. And if that wasn’t weird enough, instead of legs, their upper torsos stretched out into long, scale-covered, silver fishtails. If I had to say what these things stranded in front of me, splattered with oil, appeared to be, I’d say mermaids. And no, they didn’t look like they’d start singing songs or granting me wishes. They looked a little bit scary—but fragile too. Most of all, they looked like they were going to die, and no handsome prince was there to kiss them and keep them from turning into sea foam.
— D.G. Driver, Cry of the Sea
People don’t like to guess. It’s easier to know something by how it immediately appears. Dark, hard metal is known as it appears, and so dark, hard people are built from it. Marble is smooth and pale and bright like the faces chipped into it. But that’s something about life, what you think you know about a thing is always the first obstacle you face when trying to get to know it better. If they could speak, do you think they’d all be the same?
— Devon Michael, Hollo
In the space between wake and sleep, where the real world juxtaposes with the imagination, that's where I live.
— Mica Rossi
You know those vampire myths? Bollocks to them.
— Rosemary A. Johns, Blood Dragons
…dancing in the carnage and the flames.
— Rosemary A. Johns
Do you feel it? That roaring call?
— Rosemary A. Johns
Blood Life is not hunger. It’s freedom.
— Rosemary A. Johns
Why should I shatter your wonderful fantasy with my boring reality? ~ Evie Snow
— Carrie Hope Fletcher, On the Other Side
There was still something unfinished around her eyes; she wasn’t done yet. She was a story, not an epilogue. And if she chose to narrate her own life one word at a time as she descended the stairs to meet her newest arrival, that wasn’t hurting anyone. Narration was a hard habit to break, after all. Sometimes it was all a body had.
— Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway
A sexual fantasy should only be something you cannot ever achieve. If it's achievable, then it's nothing more than a reality you avoid making happen for yourself
— James Perrin, The Occasional Swearing Of Passionate Perrin
If you go chasing your freedom your fate will only follow you there and force you back.
— Christina Henry, Alice
If there was a second alias under her smile, it was going to take a long time for me to dig it out – my best course of action at this point would be to play nice and accept her help. Then, when I had more proof, I’d slice layers off of her until the real woman appeared.
— Aprille Legacy, A Veil of Stars
I don't believe in love at first sight but maybe this is as close as it gets: seeing someone, a person you have no business loving, on a football field one night and thinking, I want you to be mine and I want to be yours. Lying on a closet floor with someone and thinking, I shouldn't know you but I do. Recognizing someone as a part of you before they've even become that person in your life, and knowing, without a doubt, that neither of you will ever be who you are in this exact moment ever again and believing, against all odds, you will continue to belong to one another despite that.
— Emily Henry, The Love That Split the World
At the edge of his consciousness, just outside the comprehensible grasp, he could sense the maelstrom of his repressed emotions; the humanity that was forced from him long ago. What was left was pure emotionless logic. Gone was the pre-tense of bumbling simpleton; gone was the outward show of social mediocrity; there was no reason to play human now. This was where Kato thrived, what he was crafted for, and as panic settled on the mortals below, Kato slowly unfurled the phenomenon that lay within.
— James Hockley, Fear's Union
Suddenly, it seems obvious to me: Only fantasy books can make sense of the skewed reality in which I live.
— David B., Epileptic
You never know what you're gonna find when you look under those covers - grandma or the wolf.
— Betsy Schow, Spelled
In the middle of nowhere, a trunk heavy with gold is a burden, not treasure.
— A.J. Gallant
At that instant the hag's noisy breathing stopped and with it all other sound. Her eyes opened, showing only whites - milky ovals infinitely eerie in the dark root-tangle of her sharp features and stringy hair. The gray tip of her tongue traveled like a large maggot around her lips.
— Fritz Leiber, Swords Against Wizardry
When Geoffrey was away, the goat often took himself off. He had soon got the goats at Granny’s cottage doing his bidding, and Nanny Ogg said once that she had seen what she called ‘that devil goat’ sitting in the middle of a circle of feral goats up in the hills. She named him ‘The Mince of Darkness’ because of his small and twinkling hooves, and added, ‘Not that I don’t like him, stinky as he is. I’ve always been one for the horns, as you might say. Goats is clever. Sheep ain’t. No offence, my dear.
— Terry Pratchett, The Shepherd's Crown
I beg readers to remember that this is a fantasy. It has of course - or I intended it to have - a moral. But the transmortal conditions are solely an imaginative supposal: they are not even a guess or a speculation at what may actually await us. The last thing I wish is to arouse factual curiosity about the details of the after-world.
— C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Putting her mind to it, Love would become familiar with his body. She would know him from top to bottom, from beginning to end.Touching this boy would be the death, and life, of her.
— Natalia Jaster, Touch
Twisted twins twinkling thick as thiefs.
— Knisztina
A witch always exercises their body and mind.
— Knisztina
Tick Tock Tick Tock...The clock strikes two ... still haven't got a clue.
— Knisztina
It's always Ragnarok. Regular mortals have the power to blow the world sky-high and all the major supernatural factions can do the same. The thing is, though, as long as people want to live then you're going to have people stepping in the way of those who want to do something to blow us up. That's the only way you can endure it.
— C.T. Phipps, Esoterrorism: From the Secret Files of the Red Room
So an inerrant archer who's inaccurate." Hastra to Athson, from The Bow of Destiny
— P. H. Solomon
History judged causes' greatness proportionally by how many individuals ,themselves powerless to affect any outcomes of consequence, suffered and died in their service.
— Victor Milán, The Dinosaur Knights
The pieces of the puzzle are visible, but not the grand design. Images flicker and dance like memories, hinting at events to come. They scatter the moment I reach for them only to re-form to taunt me. I who never truly possessed them, nor may I ever.They do tell me this: a time of great change approaches and it’s not enough to watch. We must act. We can’t count on others to do our work for us or all may be lost.- Oracle Lilian’s Diary, Winter of 3765
— Mara Amberly, Fire and Gold
The knife; tool of the Thief, Skeben. I believe this is a mark of the prisoner’s guilt.”There was a howl of “no!” from the prisoner. For the first time, Minister Terell smiled.“The last rune,” Alexa said, louder. The disc had a simple circle with a dot at its heart. “It’s a mark of the world and the path. What ends will begin anew.
— Mara Amberly, Fire and Gold
The first sight I beheld when I first awakened was a pair of eyes filled with pure adoration and a joyful grin that shone more brightly than the afternoon sun. Though he hadn’t spoken a single word, I knew exactly who he was. He was my creator … my Lord … my God.
— Kristen Reed, Out of the Garden
The real difference is that with fantasy—and by that I mean fantasy which can simultaneously tap into a cosmopolitan commonality at the same time as it springs from an individual and unique perspective. In this sort of fantasy, a mythic resonance lingers on—an harmonious vibration that builds in potency the longer one considers it, rather than fading away when the final page is read and the book is put away. Characters discovered in such writing are pulled from our own inner landscapes... and then set out upon the stories' various stages so that as we learn to understand them a little better, both the monsters and the angels, we come to understand ourselves a little better as well.
— Charles de Lint
Mrs Hargreaves liked her job and she liked the Hoopers. As far as she was concerned there was far too much twaddle being talked about Glade Hall, by people with too much time on their hands.“Over fertile imaginations.” She’d told the new head gardener.Some of the locals had worked for the hotel and told stories of seeing shadows around the grounds, when the light was just right. As if shadows could hurt anyone ! It was all twaddle and nonsense.
— Edward Cowling
There is no reticence nor any limit to a 'Majique.' Only the unwillingness of the mind to open itself to the limitless power of possibilities that exist within the unbelievable.
— Rob Shepherd
Life without madness is mediocrity.
— Nelou Keramati
You’re too much of a bitch to go gently into that good night.”“You should put that on a greeting card.
— SE Zbasnik, Dwarves in Space 2: Family Matters
I can't come,' she said apologetically, 'I have forgotten how to fly.''I'll soon teach you again.''O Peter, don't waste the fairy dust on me.
— J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Fafhrd stopped, again wiped right hand on robe, and held it out. "Name's Fafhrd. Ef ay ef aitch ar dee."Again the Mouser shook it. "Gray Mouser," he said a touch defiantly, as if challenging anyone to laugh at the sobriquet. "Excuse me, but how exactly do you pronounce that? Faf-hrud?""Just Faf-erd.
— Fritz Leiber
I am very pleased you like my stories. They are studies in prose, put for Romance's sake into fanciful form: meant partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find simplicity in a subtle strangeness.
— Oscar Wilde
Part of the job of adults was to set limits. But the last rule, the unspoken rule of any story or journey, is that all limits are suspect. All warnings show only the point where the last story stopped, the boundary past which the map is unmapped. The Kingdom of Here There Be Dragons is the province of explorers, magicians, and kids.
— Bob Proehl, A Hundred Thousand Worlds
I'm a sailor, Lettie, I go where the wind takes me. And it led me to you, didn't it? I was born ten thousand miles away, but the wind brought me to Barter, and now we're friends. We're on this boat for a reason.
— Sam Gayton, The Snow Merchant
You've never had wok-seared spicy broccoli until you've had takeout trans-temporal wok-seared spicy broccoli delivered by a copy of yourself.
— Magnus Von Black, The Song and the Pendant
Natural isn't the same as right. Normal isn't the same as moral. Everyone deserves a say in what happens to the world.
— Audrey Greathouse, The Neverland Wars
Space: the gaping hole between land and other land.
— SE Zbasnik, Dwarves in Space 2: Family Matters
You can only hide the sun for so long.
— E.M. Markoff, The Deadbringer
Hindsight isn’t a super power.
— SE Zbasnik, Dwarves in Space 2: Family Matters
Be what you yearn to be, and stop living for false ideals.
— E.M. Markoff, The Deadbringer
...and as she was crossing to the day-nursery he added thoughtlessly, 'And shut that window. I feel a draught.' 'O George, never ask me to do that. The window must always be left open for them, always, always.
— J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
He peeped in again to see why the music had stopped, and now he saw that Mrs. Darling had laid her head on the box, and that two tears were sitting on her eyes.'She wants me to unbar the window,' thought Peter, 'but I won't, not I!'He peeped again, and the tears were still there, or another two had taken their place.'She's awfully fond of Wendy,' he said to himself. He was angry with her now for not seeing why she could not have Wendy.The reason was so simple: 'I'm fond of her too. We can't both have her, lady.
— J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Rap un zeal' Demon within. I might as well put up a giant 'Come and Get Eaten' sign for the good those warning runes do.
— Sabrina Zbasnik, And They Lived: A Short Story Anthology
He smelled of forest and primal desire that saturated Taryn's senses and made her imagine what it felt like to be caught and conquered.
— Genevra Thorne, The Enchanted
Where are we?" "In a special place," he whispered, dragging his lips across her ear, "where magic is real.
— Genevra Thorne, The Beloved
Gossip is the swiftest bird alive," Amonos said darkly."Yes," said E'sinea, turning to view his surroundings. "I should like one day to catch Gossip and wring its neck.
— E.M. Markoff, The Deadbringer
I couldn't suppress a smile. It was inconceivable that I was here, in a place as extraordinary as the fantasy books Sophie loved. Maybe...just maybe those stories are based on a measure of truth. Maybe one day I'd write our story.
— Heather L. L. FitzGerald
The sound of the gunshot in that narrow tunnel was like being inside a thunderbolt. I held my eyes closed, my fingers still clinging to the barrel."Ow!" the Mad Hatter shouted a distance ahead. "That thing is loud!"I opened my eyes. Nine of Spades lay in front of me. He didn't move."Heh. You've got quite a roar, little lion. I've never seen a lion's roar do that, but I've never seen an elephant fit in a tin can either.
— DAVID D HAMMONS
Their meal was illuminated by torches, which Gwen found were utterly without fire. What the children called torches were really just small platforms on tall, wooden poles. The reason they radiated light was because fairies had flown up to them to waltz and glow on the tiny dance floors.
— Audrey Greathouse, The Neverland Wars
Yes,” Curran said. “We’d like you to officiate.”“I’m sorry?”“We’d like you to marry us,” I said.Roman’s eyes went wide. He pointed to himself. “Me?”“Yes,” Curran said.“Marry you?”“Yes.”“You do know what I do, right?”“Yes,” I said. “You’re Chernobog’s priest.
— Ilona Andrews, Magic Binds
The courage to live brings its own rewards.
— Rachel L. Schade, Silent Kingdom
I heard a story," Aedion drawled to Rowan, "that you killed an enemy warlord using a table." "Please,"Aelin said. "Who the hell told you that?""Quinn-your uncle's Captain of the Guard. He was an admirer of Prince Rowan's. He knew all the stories."Aelin slid her eyes to Rowan, who smirked, bracing his sparring stick on the floor. "You can't be serious," she said. "What-you squashed him to death like a pressed grape?
— Sarah J. Maas, Queen of Shadows
Being a geological formation gives you a lot of time to think. Also, I subscribed to a number of learned journals.
— Neil Gaiman, Fortunately, the Milk
My decisions determine my destination long before I ever get there. And once I do get there, I suddenly realize this is not the destination I had in mind because what I had in mind was the fantasy that my denial had created verses the reality my choices crafted.
— Craig D. Lounsbrough
The memories of our glories fade, and rot away into half-arsed anecdotes, thin and unconvincing as some other bastard's lies. The failures, the disappointments, the regrets, they stay raw as the moments they happened.
— Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold
Men are brittle, I reckon. They don't bend into new shapes. They get broken into them. Crushed into them.
— Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold
Approach everything with a careful tongue. - Elder God from The Thousand Years War
— Angel Ramon Medina, The Thousand Years War
Monza never had understood why getting out a tit or two made for a better painting. But painters seemed to think it did, so tits is what you got.
— Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold
Kate grasped her small handbag and pulled a small blue vial and threw it into the grinding mass. It shattered harmlessly, causing two creatures to pause with a look of confusion."What is that potion?" Simon asked.Kate stared as the two undead things began to shuffle forward again. She glanced into her purse. "Damn it! That was my perfume.
— Clay Griffith, The Undying Legion
He pushed his way between them with his burly frame and forced her to stand in the cold with him. He flipped the long, silver dagger so its worn handle faced her. "Take your claw, pup," he growled. This was called White Fang, a blade almost as legendary as the hunter who owned it. It has been long told in the village that as a youth, Wolfsbane had destroyed an entire pack on his own, thus earning his name.
— Jennifer Silverwood, Wolfsbane's Daughter