c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Westcliff sees an odd sort of logic in why you would finally be the one to win St. Vincent’s heart. He says a girl like you would appeal to…hmm, how did he put it?…I can’t remember the exact words, but it was something like…you would appeal to St. Vincent’s deepest, most secret fantasy.” Evie felt her cheeks flushing while a skirmish of pain and hope took place in the tired confines of her chest. She tried to respond sardonically. “I should think his fantasy is to consort with as many women as possible.” A grin crossed Lillian’s lips. “Dear, that is not St. Vincent’s fantasy, it’s his reality. And you’re probably the first sweet, decent girl he’s ever had anything to do with.” “He spent quite a lot of time with you and Daisy in Hampshire,” Evie countered. That seemed to amuse Lillian further. “I’m not at all sweet, dear. And neither is my sister. Don’t say you have been laboring under that misconception all this time?
— Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Winter
I'm so tired of being alone," Heller whispered, voice broken. "So very tired of being on the outside looking in. Please ..."I tightened my arms around him. Could Heller be asking for what I thought? "What, Heller? Please what? What do you want?" "You," Heller murmured. "I want you. Please tell me you don't hate me for what I did. Or how I acted in the beginning. Please give me a chance ... please don't leave me." Squeezing my eyes closed, I fought not to let the tears escape, my heart threatening to break at the anguish I heard in Heller's voice.
— M.A. Church, Behind the Eight Ball
Living was a sad and empty thing
— E.E. Holmes, Spirit Ascendancy
The cool touch of the rock soothed Waeccan. He felt its strengthflowing into him, trickling through his fingertips. The Shades wereon his side. They would bring back the peace he needed for hiswork. The intruder was just a man—nothing more. He would bedealt with. Everything would be as it was meant to be. Waeccanallowed himself a grim smile. How strange it was that he, whosename meant watcher, had become the one who was watched.
— Mikey Campling, Trespass
the siren song/called silence
— Steven Erikson, Deadhouse Gates
The day the Dragon chooses a male virgin instead of a female as his yearly sacrifice, the entire kingdom erupts into mass protests and anger.
— Mads Sukalikar, Do Virgins Taste Better? And Other Tales of Whimsy
When Sleeping Beauty wakes up, the whole palace is upset. “You must go back to sleep,” her mother tells her, “It’s not time.” From what she understands, the Prince hasn’t come to rescue her yet.
— Mads Sukalikar, Do Virgins Taste Better? And Other Tales of Whimsy
The next morning, boom! She found herself waking in bed next to the handsome, rogue-supporting character of her favourite novel. Out of the blue, Mary Sue was inside the #1 bestseller, epic fantasy novel ever written.
— Mads Sukalikar, Do Virgins Taste Better? And Other Tales of Whimsy
When the Lilliputian family of the Pequenos migrated to Gulliver’s land of the Man Mountains, they expected to encounter many strange issues while settling in. What Mrs Pequenos didn’t anticipate was her daughter’s announcement that she was in love with a Man Mountain boy and was going to get married.
— Mads Sukalikar, Do Virgins Taste Better? And Other Tales of Whimsy
Sometimes I wonder who the real monsters are. The ones without the hearts or the ones who rip them out" - Bastion of Aberrants (In progress)
— Azia Kaida
Even the darkest minds can be overcome with compassion
— C.E. Dimond, Awakening
If you’re trying to reassure me, don’t make it sound like you want to eat me.” Tarn leaned in farther, letting the long twists of his hair fall to brush Gard’s cheek. Then he murmured, putting a little growl into it, “I do want to eat you. I like the way you taste.
— Amy Rae Durreson, Reawakening
Jin Quan laughed. Samantha laughed too trying to find her lost dignity
— Cyci Cade, The boys and the dragon
By swap news do you mean drink?" "I do, and that excessively.
— Joe Abercrombie
Regret is a painful thing. Few people understand that there are three important things that leave us and can never return. Words. Time. Opportunity. These are things we can never get back.
— Kathryn Perez, Letters Written in White
A legacy is not what is recorded in history books or repeated in song, but what is woven into the souls of those who remain.(from The General's Legacy)
— Adrian G. Hilder
I mean,” he said, “that by your own showing, the greatest threat to heaven comes from within the ranks of the angels themselves. Before you can prove to me that heroes can defeat villains with nothing but the purest chivalric ideals, you must convince me that heroes do exist, and that villains are not a fanciful tale for children. You must tell me, sir, if you dare, that you are incorruptible, and that your colleagues and commanders are as pure as you.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Blanchefleur felt a quick rush of affection for her. When the world frowned, Branwen went on smiling. There was a heart of steel under all that froth and bubble.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
In the dim sunset Perceval looked the glade over and said, “Does your lady wife think so little of sending you out on deadly errands?” Sir Gareth unstrapped the blanket from behind his saddle. “It’s our fourth child. I’ve grown accustomed to it.” “Of course,” Perceval said with a grin, “even dragonfire might burn less hot than my lady aunt’s temper.” Sir Gareth cuffed Perceval across the ear. “For that piece of insolence, youngster, you take the first watch. And be glad you are so tender in years that I dare not risk my honour upon you in single combat to prove my Lynet as sweet-tempered as she should be.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Perceval said to the Grail Knight: “Will you break a spear with me this day?” He did not expect Galahad to look down on him from Lancelot’s immense height and say, gently, as if he knew it must disappoint, “Sir, I cannot.” “No? Well, there are others to fight,” said Perceval, trying not to show how vexed he felt to be denied the honour. “Not for any lack of love,” Galahad added. “But for the regard in which I hold you, Perceval of Wales.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Max, you cannot stay in the background forever. It is time to stand out in front. You have all that you need.” Analea
— Kathy Cyr, Max Hamby and the Emerald Hunt
How you must hate Logres,” she said in a dry mouth. “Hate Logres?” He leaned back in his chair, shaking his head. “There is an anger that is deserved, Blanche. Tell me. Look me in the eye, if you can, and tell me—to my face—that Logres is without sin.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Little boys jump, but they do not know where. Into the mouth of the demon lair. Hold still and you will see, in his hand is the key. Fire and brimstone. Brimstone and fire. Your ally is clever. a thief and a liar. All is not lost. You can turn it around. But, for a moment...all will be well.....peaceful and sound." Alice.
— Kathy Cyr, Max Hamby and the Onyx Eyes
You’re such a little moron, aren’t you? They will hunt you down to the ends of the earth. It’s nothing personal, just business. It’s all about survival, dear boy." Drusilla Blackwood
— Kathy Cyr, Max Hamby and the Blood Diamond
Amelia envisaged that between York and the royal-infested Scottish Highlands there was a grimy wasteland of derelict cranes and abandoned mills and betrayed, yet still staunch, people. Oh and moorland, of course, vast tracts of brooding landscape under lowering skies, and across this heath strode brooding, lowering men intent on reaching their ancestral houses, where they were going to fling open doors and castigate orphaned yet resolute governesses. Or — preferably — the brooding, lowering men were on horseback, black horses with huge muscled haunches, glistening with sweat —
— Kate Atkinson, Case Histories
That night she dreamed about the King again. She stood in a riverside meadow between greenwood and castle. Overhead the sun shone gilt in a sky like powdered lapis and struck golden sparks from the King's blood-red dragon banner.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
She slipped off the lid and took out a little hourglass hanging on a silver pivot from a black ribbon, its belly full of twinkling black sand. "Oh, it's beautiful!" "You like it." Her guardian, the antiquarian, who invested every colour, gemstone, beast, and planet with arcane and symbolic meaning, would likely give her a lecture on saturnine influences. Blanche decided not to care. "Yes, I do.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
I have fled from the wilderness fasting, with woe and unflagging travail,I have sought for the light on the mountain, and skirted the devilish dale. I have laid my mouth in the dust, and begged the Might to be kind,I have come to the feast, and I famish. Now grant me the Holy Grail.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
It was like listening to the universe in motion. Planets spinning on their appointed courses, the lives of men intersecting and parting, the unimaginable harmony of the human body itself in hierarchy and order, were all implied in the song, but something greater as well: the genius of the composer, which must surely approach the miraculous. Perceval closed his eyes and was lost in the weaving music.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
There was carpet under Blanchefleur’s feet and the scent of clean and delicate things in her nostrils—perfume, babies, soap, and tea. Homesickness hit her like a clenched fist; this was worse than memory.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
He grinned. “Do not fear. I am here to serve you, as I promised.” Despite the fit of schoolgirl giggles that had seized her in Carbonek when he first proposed to be her knight, his assurance annoyed her now. “You inspire me with confidence,” she said, honey-sweet. “With a few more years and experience, you would make a capable guardian, I’m sure.” “And you an amiable ward,” he said, bowing again.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Do not deceive yourself, Gawain. There are black places in the heart of every man.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Hurry up, Hodgeyboy! You run like a fat badger after Sunday tea." Mibbitwiss
— Kathy Cyr, Max Hamby and the Blood Diamond
If you do not get to her time...............He will cut out her heart & feed it to the fishes...." Alice
— Kathy Cyr, Max Hamby and the Blood Diamond
You have been gifted the Blood Diamond and are surrounded by all that is good. You will not fail as long as you believe.” Analea
— Kathy Cyr, Max Hamby and the Emerald Hunt
A knight will give a lady a ring from his hand and take a kiss from her lips, when he wishes to love her and serve her all his days," she recited, as she had when he was small. She pulled the ring from the chain and held it out to him. "This ring is the knight's who swore to serve me. Take it. One day you may find a lady to wear it.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Oh, Perceval, a falcon is born to hunt, and so are you. One day you will hunt indeed--but not yet." "Why? Am I not ready?"She looked at him sadly and said, "Give me a little longer.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Sir Ector looked into the fire, fidgeting with something in his pocket. "I have something for you," he said at last. "It was your mother's." And he drew out the thing in his pocket and held it up to her. The ring Blanche took from him was antique silver, cabochon-set with a glimmering moonstone. Her mother's ring! Blanche folded it into her hand and held tightly to the only thing her parents had left her.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
I did not do it for you, sire." Gawain was deadly serious now. "Death comes to us and all mortals. I shall still lose you one day. But Logres! The only perfection under heaven would fall if I could not save you.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
Let me out, witch," growled Alice. She began to hum off key.Griselda stepped away from the door."I can help the little wee babes," Alice sung sweetly. "Through the woods and into the dark. Where he whispers the words to make his mark. Little boy of green..." Alice chuckled. "...has gone to the wizard who is evil and mean.
— Kathy Cyr, Max Hamby and the Emerald Hunt
Then this is for you," Galahad said, and drew a knife from the pouch at his belt. It was an odd little thing, T-hilted and small enough to fit into a woman's hand. Its translucent blade, only an inch and a half long, was bound with scrolling bronze wire to the bone hilt. "Have a care. Obsidian is sharper than anything else in the world, sharp enough to make sunlight bleed.
— Suzannah  Rowntree, Pendragon's Heir
I now lived in an invisible place made of my own dwindling breath, and because no one else could see it, they could not yank me out of it.
— Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement
No one can destroy the love God has for you. When you abide in truth, you also abide in love. And truth is evidence of love. Nothing can destroy the power of trusting and loving unconditionally.
— Amaka Imani Nkosazana
The media represents world that is more real than reality that we can experience. People lose the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. They also begin to engage with the fantasy without realizing what it really is.They seek happiness and fulfilment through the simulacra of reality, e.g. media and avoid the contact/interaction with the real world.
— Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation
The Prancer stepped back and studied her for a moment. Then, with a gleam in his eye, he said, 'All unicorns know the Land. Few humans do. But no unicorn knows how to brew ale.''I’m glad humans have some use.''Only those who can brew ale.
— Chrys Cymri, The Dragon Throne
I heard ‘naked’ and ‘full of hot air.’ I try not to let that be my first impression of anyone.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
A scholar knows not to waste time rediscovering information already known.
— Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
Happiness wasn't a mystical place to be reached or won-some bright terrain beyond the boundary of misery, a paradise waiting for them to find it-but something to carry doggedly through everything.
— Laini Taylor, Dreams of Gods & Monsters
I am always a perfect gentleman. If you ever want me to not be a perfect gentlemen, you’ll have to ask and not be crying when you do.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
You are never to drive like that,” I told them. “Even if you are ever wealthy enough to own a Jaguar.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
How would we get corporate sponsorship if we were just a bunch of thugs?
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
I love the man,” Megan said as she took a seat, “but honestly he needs to learn when not to agree with me.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
That’s the problem! She doesn’t say anything. She just stares at me like she’s hypnotized, like she thinks I’m a god, but then she runs off squeaking if I try to talk to her.”“I don’t squeak,” I protested. “Maybe she’s not looking at you like you’re a god. Maybe she thinks you’re more of a freak,” Fergus mused.“I’m not a freak.” Murphy jerked his head as if dodging a fly or tossing his hair. “It’s definitely a ‘you’re a god’ look. She practically drools.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
I’m an ass,” the voice on the phone said. “A complete and total ass.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
It was a sign of how worried and confused I was that I wasn’t completely distracted by the sight of his powerful thighs flexed in front of me.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Leprechauns are not twee beings dreamed up by the tourist board, but warriors of legend. That name comes from the Celtic god of commerce and war, Lugh. Their mission, their life’s work, is to protect the gold. What better way to hide it than to become a joke, a story nobody takes seriously?
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Jinx, I know you just lost your grandfather, but you straighten out your tone right now or I will smack you one!
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Ah, that’s just sean nós singing and dancing. Something to do around the pub of an evening.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Don’t know what I’m talking about? Don’t know what I’m talking about!” My shout hit notes that normally only Wagnerian sopranos can reach. “You think you’re a freaking leprechaun, but I don’t know what I’m talking about?
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
No, really,” she said. “We get it. Sometimes the guy just makes you crazy, even if you do love him.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
You could have agreed to disagree,” Megan argued. “Then you could kiss and make up. That could be fun.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
A country road, a gravel road, is a sign of civilization, sure, but it’s just a farm, an easy conquest. Iron means a stronghold, people who can defend what’s theirs.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
You can’t have it both ways. Either I’m Irish and can talk, or I’m a man and I can’t.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Mr. Jennings is the one who trapped the fairies here to begin with. If they’re back and wandering around, if they’re loose, then, well, it’s not good.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
That’s not Eire. Everyone always thinks that, but we’re not shamrocks and wee men. You should know the difference.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Murphy didn’t appear to notice my chagrin, but instead pulled up the hem of his long-sleeved tee to wipe at his face. Since he flashed his sculpted abdominals right at me, I grew hot and flushed. I mean, you could see every dip and curve, including the ones on either hip that made a V to lead the eye to the fly of his jeans.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Everyone helping out was supposed to make me feel better, but it actually made me feel more like a screw up.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
The older lady smiled a friendly welcome that rivaled her preserves for sweet appeal. She could have been someone’s grandmother complete with close-cropped white hair if she wasn’t wearing a worn Grateful Dead T-shirt over a long-sleeved thermal. The 1987 Summer Tour.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Now, where had I heard drinking and brawling before? Oh right, Ashley’s father. Well, I wasn’t doing that again.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
That was one tiny trailer when both girls wanted to watch TV or use the computer or the bathroom at the same time.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
In Dark Places, May we Never be truly Alone.....~Susan Schroder, Circle the Sun books
— Susan Schroder
A story from beginning to end that might entertain, teach, or simply bore your listener. It's all in the delivery, my dear."He got a smug look on his face as he scooted his posterior deeper into the chair and took his pipe between his teeth. "I'm just better at it than most.
— Karen L Milstein, Fergus and the Princess: A Lasker the Storyteller Tale
Leave city, leave reality; enter forest, enter fantasy!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
One man's fantasy is another man's reality!
— Ramana Pemmaraju
Why should their pain produce such marvelous beauty? he wonders. Or is all beauty created through pain? Is that the secret of great art, both human and Melnibonen?
— Michael Moorcock, Elric of Melniboné
Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.― Stephen King, The Shining
— Stephen King, The Shining
I couldn’t believe it; my deepest darkest fantasy of a cute school girl slowly stripping in front of me was finally unbelievingly coming true! Furthermore, it wasn’t just any school girl, but one from my school, that was the icing on the cake, or at least it should have been. Because, at the same time that my fantasy was becoming reality, I felt that I was being very badly cheated. Why couldn’t it have been sixteen year old Heather Johnson or fifteen year old Pamela wade stripping before me, instead of the eight year old Ami Fujishiro?
— Andrew James Pritchard, Sukiyaki
Then Viol Chrime-Forgot and Sir Duno Chrime held each other tightly and wept sweet tears and Sir Duno Chrime swore that he did not care if his squire was a little strange and that he would never abandon him again so long as he lived and Viol Chrime-Forgot said he did not care if Duno Chrime was old, or mad or thought that he was made of glass, for he would never be apart from him again no matter what adventure fell, and though neither could hear each other over the roaring of the endless falls, or see each others tears for the misty dripping of the cave each knew what the other said and meant, and so they were friends again and remained so for as long as they both lived.
— Patrick Stuart, False Readings
Elves are extremely long-lived -- the passing years are but a blink of an eye to them. What also sets them apart from us is the very narrow window during which they can procreate, and, as a natural consequence, their very low fertility. The Aen Seidhe believe this to be the main reason for their decline. As one of my elven friends put it, "Even though we fought like wolves, we lost to a race which fucks like rabbits.
— David Hodgson, A Fractured Land: Tales of the Northern Realms
Be careful mi amor, don't hurt anyone this time.
— Isabelle Hardesty, Legends of the Dragon Vol. 1
She looked at him and felt a dagger pierce her heart, then she felt a warm chocolate feeling swallow her senses.
— Isabelle Hardesty, Legends of the Dragon Vol. 1
It's terrific, Clare," Henry says, and we stare at each other, and I think, "Don't leave me.
— Audrey Niffenegger
Still, I was thinking that this was all wrong, despite feeling so nice, for once again one of my most sacred and deepest erotic fantasies was brutally being shattered, and once more it was all because of Ami. After all, it had been one of my fondest dreams, as a teenager, to lie in bed cuddling with a cute girl, or even with Yumi. Of course, in those many imaginations, we were both naked and we were having wild passionate sex as well as cuddling, but there before me at that very moment was the sad pathetic reality.
— Andrew James Pritchard, Sukiyaki
In time, the witchers' steel swords earned the name of "swords for men." A foul moniker, though not one conjured out of thin air. A good steel blade is indeed our first line of defense against mankind's hatred, stupidity, or greed. The world is full of those who would happily kill a witcher - out of resentment toward our trade, for fame, or simply to profit by snatching up our hard-earned coin. So the witchers, fully aware of the situation, never hesitated to relieve this world of the burden of dolts who were so thick headed as to threaten their lives. For that reason, in my day we called our steel swords "swords for fools." Unfortunately, seeing as how mendacious the two-faced scoundrels of bitches seem to rule this world, a great many fools have been apparently spared this selection process.
— Marcin Batylda, The World of the Witcher
Be careful mi amor, don't hurt anyone this time." Cordia reminded Jade.
— Isabelle Hardesty, Legends of the Dragon Vol. 1
...reclusiveness itself may be a kind of violence. It leaves an abyss for us to throw our fantasies into.
— Supervert, Post-Depravity
In this state, the club was The Wizard of Oz made obvious: All the magic that went on here night after night, all the buzz and excitement, was really just a combination of electronics, booze, and chemicals, an illusion for the people who walked through the front doors, a fantasy that allowed them to be whatever they weren't in their day-to-day lives.
— J.R. Ward, Lover Avenged
In dream, delusion, and fantasy, exist man’s next best reality: that place where he is the creator of his own worlds; where he builds, learns, discovers and entertains; is master of all outcomes, his own god of destiny, and thus the student of his own evolving and ever uncertain truth.
— Duane Hewitt
To seek after peace is to be ever ware of any who would threaten it.
— Roan Clay, Concerning a Man
The fool will teach ere he has learned, and his very servants scorn him.
— Roan Clay, Concerning a Man
Kulwar Wolters, a gloved man I suspect to be a Cliothaum, can and could be anywhere.Cliothaumy’s an illegal skill, rare and hard to learn. It lets you burn memory to twist the world in certain ways. The more you use it, the less you know why. Magic never gives you anything back, there’s always a trick. Kulwar Wolters used it rarely, if at all. But his fingertips were burnt, I think.
— Patrick Stuart, False Readings
The demon of revenge had already taken hold of his heart. The cancer of injustice had already eaten at his cheerful soul, leaving a skeleton of a carcass behind, one that could never feel compassion for humans—or anything else—again.
— Cameron Jace, Happy Valentine's Slay, Children of Hamlin, Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale, Ember in the Wind, Jar of Hearts, Welcome to Sorrow
There was a time, before the battles between men and dragons, when the Veiled Valley was green and covered with trees, berry bushes, and wildflowers. Birdsong filled the air from early morning until sunset. Sunriseside, a mountain poked its peak above a vast, dark forrest. At the base of its tree-covered slopes, far below our ancestors' cave, a lodge housed a large family of Valley folk.
— Susan Bass Marcus, Dragons Return
Nothing good can come from a crack of dawn meeting on a Monday morning.
— Kathy Bryson - Fighting Mad
It was easy to imagine he’d just rolled out of bed and then it was easy to imagine him in bed and I wasn’t going there.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Ours was not one of those nice, quaintly old-fashioned mobile homes that senior citizens putter around in. We lived in the beat-up tin can of clichéd poverty.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Take some advice from an old farmer. You’re in business now. Take the money. You’d be amazed at how many don’t want to pay.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
I realized that I sat in an empty bar in filthy, wet clothes with a drippy nose, probably red-rimmed eyes, and the most I could say I’d accomplished was that I was now congested. Oh, and one of the handsomest, nicest men I’d ever met cradled my face in warm, caressing hands with soft, sympathy in his brown eyes.
— Kathy Bryson, Fighting Mad
Look what we've done so far. We're pretty good at the impossible.
— Richelle Mead, Soundless
She's all brute force and '90s clichés.
— Rainbow Rowell, Carry On
I think that we all drown, in one way or another.
— Moïra Fowley-Doyle, The Accident Season
No wolf falters before the bite, so strike.No hawk wavers before the dive, so swing.No sun pauses before the set, just strike.No rain delays before the fall, just swing.
— Shannon Hale, Princess Academy
It was books that kept me from taking my own life after I thought I could never love anyone, never be loved by anyone again.
— Will Harondale, Clockwork Prince
dJack be nimble,Jack be quick,Jack forgot to check if the ice was thick.Emma was still,Emma was late,Emma’s brother is now part of the lake.Time has passed,Time has gone,Time brought Jack back wrong.He was solemn,He was brave,He left his coat on Emma’s grave.Emma was sad,Emma was scared,But she knew inside that Jack really cared.Jack was lost,Jack had forgot,That he had a story before the plot.Jack had wondered,Jack had fought,Jack had remembered what he had forgot.I hope you dream.I hope you wonder.I hope you have fun because this is done.Keep believing everyone.Jack be fearless,Jack be bold,Jack drowned when he was 17 years old.
— William Joyce, Jack Frost
For everything about him fitting her fantasy image of what she wanted, she still didn’t feel seen by him…and that made her all the more aware that maybe her fantasy wasn’t what she wanted at all.
— Colleen Chen, Dysmorphic Kingdom
The closest I ever got to Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms was when I bought the box game set for the latter (I think this was before the novels came out). I well recall this—we were living in James Bay, in Victoria. We opened the box up and took out the maps while sitting in a Mexican restaurant. Ten minutes later I was as close as I have ever been to publicly burning someone else’s creation…What bothered us was the reworking of every fantasy cliché imaginable, all in one package now, and none of it made sense.
— Steven Erikson
In the void, there is no distinction of east and west."Gwen blinked slightly at that. "I know all of those words, and yet when strung together like that I have no idea what they mean.
— Jim Butcher, The Aeronaut's Windlass
Remember Ping-fa, Sun Tzu,’ Art of War—read between the lines: kick ass and take names later.”MadStargirl
— Linden Morningstar, The Starlight Prophecy
Then why are you still here?” I ask. I stand up and her gun follows me. I welcome its bullets just to see if I could survive.“Masochism.”“I don’t know what that means.”“It means I like my own pain.”“That doesn’t make sense.”“I’m human. You think we ever make sense?
— Tessa Maurer, The Toxic Children
Mad, in exasperation, cried out to the unseen force, “Why did you summon us? There must be a reason. Tell us.” She heard a dreamlike voice.“You are Stargirls.” The voice paused, letting the fog and confusion of their nightmare to lift.Lyn found her voice, “But why us?”“You are the chosen ones by prophecy; you have proven your worthiness. A time warp brought you here. The one you opened was no accident. It was left a hundred thousand years ago just for you. Your Star training as children has prepared you well. You are ready for the next stage in your evolution.
— Linden Morningstar, The Starlight Prophecy
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.
— J.R.R. Tolkien
Happily-ever-after monogamy has been reinforced so steadily in literature that we tend to feel like failures when we don’t achieve that in reality.
— Colleen Chen, Dysmorphic Kingdom
Magic is the word illiterates use for phenomena they can’t explain.
— T.K. Kiser, The Firebrand Legacy
Lyn, this was the “Aha!” moment when Desta found another astonishing skeleton. Remarkably, it appeared utterly human but existed before humans walked the Earth. Clutched in its hand a small sphere attached to an elaborate gold necklace. The sphere was not like any material on Earth. Remember when I told you our origins might lie in the stars? Well, I think we found the answer in the Afar desertMax
— Linden Morningstar, The Starlight Prophecy
Work to live up to your dreams and fantasies
—  to hell with them who ask you to come back to reality.
Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.
— J.R.R. Tolkien
If the path isn't in front of you, you can't choose to walk it." - Viriathus, Revelation
— R.P. Miller
Magic isn’t a far-off phenomenon.
— T.K. Kiser, The Firebrand Legacy
Have you ever seen a world fall to its knees? Watch, and learn.
— Ob Nixilis (Magic: The Gathering
Violet will carry he mark of Merlin's bloodline and she'll be able to wake The Lady from her slumber.
— Allison Sipe, Soothsayer: Magic Is All Around Us
By the time Albie is my age I will be long gone, or, best-case scenario, barricaded into my living module with enough rations to see out my days. But outside, I imagine vast, unregulated factories where workers count themselves lucky to toil through eighteen-hour days for less than a living wage before pulling on their gas masks to fight their way through the unemployed masses who are bartering with the mutated chickens and old tin-cans that they use for currency, those lucky workers returning to tiny, crowded shacks in a vast megalopolis where a tree is never seen, the air is thick with police drones, where car-bomb explosions, typhoons and freak hailstorms are so commonplace as to be barely remarked upon. Meanwhile, in the literally gilded towers above the carcinogenic smog, the privileged 1 per cent of businessmen, celebrities and entrepeneurs look down through bullet-proof windows, accept coktails in strange glasses from the robot waiters hovering nearby and laugh their tinkling laughs and somewhere, down there in that hellish, stewing mess of violence, poverty and desperation, is my son, Albie Petersen, a wandering minstrel with his guitar and his keen interest in photography, still refusing to wear a decent coat.
— David Nicholls, Us
We must seek the truth, not revenge.” -Michelle
— Lydhia Marie, Reveal
I think the we all drown, in one way or another.
— Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Dorian's scar itched. It did that when he was agitated, or angry, or experiencing anything one might call emotion. Or when rain was on the horizon, but he didn't think that was entirely relevant to why it was itching now.
— Melissa Grey, The Girl at Midnight
And so the lion fell in love with the lamb." - Edward Cullen, Twilight
— Stephanie Meyer
It's entirely possible that there are memories you have buried or repressed, memories formed when you were too young to have a conscious recollection of them, that Brother Jeremiah can reach. It could help us a great deal.
— Cassandra Clare, City of Bones
Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over worldbuilding.Worldbuilding is dull. Worldbuilding literalises the urge to invent. Worldbuilding gives an unnecessary permission for acts of writing (indeed, for acts of reading). Worldbuilding numbs the reader’s ability to fulfil their part of the bargain, because it believes that it has to do everything around here if anything is going to get done.Above all, worldbuilding is not technically necessary. It is the great clomping foot of nerdism. It is the attempt to exhaustively survey a place that isn’t there. A good writer would never try to do that, even with a place that is there. It isn’t possible, & if it was the results wouldn’t be readable: they would constitute not a book but the biggest library ever built, a hallowed place of dedication & lifelong study. This gives us a clue to the psychological type of the worldbuilder & the worldbuilder’s victim, & makes us very afraid.
— M. John Harrison
Why did everyone like that story so much when it wasn't true? Why was everyone so eager to believe it? Was it because, in real life, ever after's generally stink?
— Margaret Peterson Haddix, Just Ella
if you miss what seems so glamorous; if you miss what seems so fantastic to have, don't worry. It may be just a matter of fantasy to have it. Real things are rare but real to have. serendipity and the vicissitudes of life determine what is real, ideal and what is a fantasy. The real future is uncertain to all.
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
You are more than likely thinking by now that all of this sounds somewhat fanciful, perhaps over the top, all too complicated and even perhaps at times chaotic. It may seem so at first glance, but life here is a complex and intriguing happening, with never a dull moment to be had. And why should it not be so? “Death” as you have named it, is not the end of life. It is to us a birth back here once again to our side, to our true home. So it is a rebirth in a sense.
— Natasha Rendell, Arthur's Cosmic Heaven
There in the garden I stand amongst the trees and the flowers. Bare back as laid out upon the grassy knoll she awaits there for me now. Atop a bed of lotus blossoms, within a wall of roses and violets held she waits. A light breeze settles in against the angle of my naked continuity, and I am whole as one inside. So she rolls her body round, like some delicate feather blown on the wind, to conceal the gentle back contour and reveal a frontal nudity that would make beauty itself ache with the need, thick within the throes of jealously for having to so unwillingly surrender over the crown. It is in there that you find paradise, and it seems she too knows me by name of a gaze gaping, and notwithstanding but a single care towards the awareness of my steady on-looking fixation. It is the stare sewing in the seeds of an awestruck wonder for what the mystics deemed necessary, and the melody of majesty aligned in plenary ordinance; a precious passing moment of collective cornucopia & blessed union of soul where all planetary constellation come together to marvel around the bringing of such a fair existence about. And what combination was that of the raw material splendour used to create this mould casting gone asunder beyond its one successful flight attempt to seize hold the sky and bottle it, never to be used again? Beholding it is to clasp the all consuming essence of longing in your pass, to wield command over the power of the cosmos with the skilled hands of lovers’ chaste holding. It is that which instills a life, a capture of Elysia off the edge of insanity refined, and that’s brilliance bled out by any design. For only by taking nature in kind and boiling her down to her purest, basic, most sincere level will you be able to build her up, and by a metamorphosis see her change, transform into something off the wings of a butterfly; sign of the worthwhile creature and form of the eternal everlasting entity. To spring forth out the sublime incarnation, a shine of glory set down for all the world to see. She is pure blissful serenity. Plant a seed to watch it grow; nurture it and it will give rise to a field of flowers full. Still none of any other would have compared as saccharine as when I first laid eyes upon the woman found stirring within the perfumed tendrils of Summer’s bloom, beneath the Stars shinning bright. Her beauty is so that I come alive. Consumed by loveliness I am completely at the lady’s mercy, and unable to turn a look away. That is to say, I would not want to.
— Byron Fortin
You will know him by the blade he carries and the Dark-born skill with which he wields it, for none who know the love of the Father may defeat the Darkblade, yet all must stand against him.
— Anthony  Ryan
Do you see the labyrinth out there?" She waved a graceful hand toward the garden. "Life is like that labyrinth, full of pathways that seem like the right way, but end up being detours. We go one way and then another until we find our true path.
— Belinda M. Gordon, Tressa's Treasure's
If we all learnt cat-speak, we would often find they are saying, “You stupid human, I am trying to tell you something important right now!
— Leah Broadby, A Dreadful Daughter's Spells
Claire.It was the last candle left within the Indian Agent. The last glimmer.He curled himself around it to keep it alive, and when the storm inhaled he studied his right hand, could feel her beside him in the carriage that night and, as if he could insist on this, looked up the depression he was calling a road, for the cabman's blindered horse, huffing through the snow, its lanterns swinging. Claire waiting for him on the worn velvet seat.
— Stephen Graham Jones
Humans, so easily electrified by the snap, crackle, pop of blood, brutality, and butchery.
— Artemis Crow, Lyon's Roar: Zodiac Assassins Book 1
Fear of new ideas breeds angry head spiders that have been known to attack.
— Leah Broadby
There exists a microscopic breed of brain beetle, commonly known as an ‘idea’. An idea desires only one thing: To catch the perfect brain wave.
— Leah Broadby, A Dreadful Daughter's Spells
I don't wanna be a Twinkling Star or a Radiant Moon or a Shining Sun. Just to be a Spectacular Sky in their backdrop.
— Sajil Chembil
From the moment any of us utter our first goo-goo's and ga-ga's, we are as good as gone. At that precise instant, any possibility that It will ever arise in us is irrevocably crushed. If any proof is needed, consider how immune to strong emotion our society has grown. At your next visit to the local funeral parlor, glance at the mourners, who can more properly be defined as spectators. Notice how they smell, how well-dressed and dignified they are. This is because viewing the dead has become overwhelmingly acceptable as a social function. Yes, even the corpse is part of the festivities, lying there as the guest of honor, laid out in his best clothes, pumped full of chemicals and smeared with make-up as the patrons file by and nurse their long buried consciences with silk handkerchiefs.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
He considered himself a sort of esoteric martyr, who'd sacrificed everything for principle. Apparently that little book had set him on a course towards political extremism, culminating in the loss of his job at the community college, as well as the breakup of his previously stable marriage. By the time he met Old Hoss, a few years later, Hiram Buckley was one of those unfortunates the normal and untroubled point at in scorn and laugh at derisively; a veritable dog that's kicked while it's down. He was, under such circumstances, a perfect companion for Abner "Old Hoss" Billingsly, one of the few people who didn't consider him a prime candidate for St. Elizabeth's, the infamous mental hospital located in the District of Columbia. Since his career in education had been so rudely interrupted, the Professor had worked his way through a series of menial, low paying jobs, which he inevitably lost due to his proclivity for preaching unwelcome and unpopular political ideas to his fellow employees.
— Donald Jeffries, The Unreals
Remember, Shaw, that the power of the dagger lies not only in the visual, but also the symbolic.
— Carla Trueheart, The Ritual of the Four
I was running on the earth,Slashing primeval winds.I was running in the world,Riddled with darkness.
— Keishi Ando, Dark Sweet: A Collection of Poetry
I mind-melded the details trapped inside my head since it felt easier than talking, which surprised me. Jadan gave a look like I should mind my own business and let Kristin enjoy her own destiny. Obviously Jadan was big on all the free will stuff.
— Dianne Bright, Soul Reader
I couldn't shake Zander's beady red eyes or the noise of his pounding wings behind us. His hot breath and foul stench reached for us, but couldn't catch us as we soared above liquid green fields in the Realm Beyond.
— Dianne Bright, Soul Reader
Sweetheart, Is today the day you run away alone in fear? Or the day you have the balls to trust in our friendship? Trust in the four of us. Together
— Scarlett Dawn, King Hall
Memory is like a box of chocolates. They disappear quickly.
— Leah Broadby, A Dreadful Daughter's Spells
There was something severed and rough about her, something tainted and, yet, at the same time those jagged pieces were the makings of something fearsome. She'd wanted to become someone the Senate would fear, why not shatter the sky?
— Elise Kova, Fire Falling
You have to earn it.' Vhalla didn't know what else to say. She had trusted him, to lead her, to teach her, and he broke that trust. It wasn't as though it was something she could simply start again on command.
— Elise Kova, Air Awakens
You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me, and still come with me.
— J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla
What are you wrapped up in?' Roan whispered. Her anger and frustration had shifted to a sympathy that grated Vhalla.'I'm simply learning where I'm meant to be.' It was the only response because it was the truth.
— Elise Kova
Importance of dreams is not in using - importance is in having. You think dreams must mean something real, that fantasy bad for the soul. All wrong, all wrong. Fantasy just as important as reality. Reality is feeding body - finding food for keep alive. Fantasy feeds spirit. Soul need food same as body, and dreams, philosophies, stories, creations, all food for spirit, see?
— Garry Douglas Kilworth, Hunter's Moon
I’m a starving child trying to stuff my stomach, gorging my senses on the decadence of these moments as if I’ll wake up in the morning and realize I’m still sweeping cinders for my stepmother.But then Adam’s lips press against my head and my worries put on a fancy dress and pretend to be something else for a while.
— Tahereh Mafi, Unravel Me
It was not accustomed to being summoned.
— Laura  Oliva, Season Of The Witch
You are Zyon's daughter. You are a soul reader. This trip is more than just a vacation," Jadan said firmly. "You might feel like postponing it now, but we need to look for the medallion while we are in that region. Joe will keep an eye on everything. Plus, your mom will know what to do. I can even call for backup.
— Dianne Bright, Soul Reader
Jadan's kiss on my forehead wasn't that big of a deal, something that a boy would have done at a junior high dance or how a friend would say goodbye before a long trip. But it felt like more. It seemed like he wanted more." ---Jennifer Mills
— Dianne Bright, Soul Reader
I think when magic is dark enough, it can look like anything it wants.
— Laura  Oliva, Season Of The Witch
I had become an arrow of sound aimed at the most terrible creature in the city.
— Fran Wilde, Updraft
Death. Life. They are in the air, the water, the earth, and the fire that surround us. They co-mingle like a dance of weeping and rejoicing. The joy and pain become one. We are of a dualistic nature." ---Jennifer Mills
— Dianne Bright, Soul Reader
Mr. Paggle lifted his own ale in the air. “What shall we toast to?”“Yarrow’s right hook?” Peer said.“Bray’s unladylike nerve?” Arlow suggested.“To new friends,” Yarrow said.“New friends,” they agreed. Their glasses clinked merrily.
— March McCarron, Division of the Marked
The world of fantasy can always blindfold. Had I know is a gateway to the realities of life
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
Is life a fantasy or fairy tales?
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Life is a fantasy.
— Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!
Jax scratched his head, grinning. “Hey – is that a cannon of epic proportions, or is it just happy to see us?”“Cannon,” the brass skull clicked. It lowered itself to the ground, swiveling down into the snow. “Cover your ears and get down.
— Matt Banach, Lost in Dream
Let's just start over", gurgled the hagget's voice. We cannot give up now.
— Zax Vagen
Down they went, into the darkness. Down ancient, worn steps coated in slippery mildew. Down into the deep recesses of the earth, far beneath the corridors of Deep-Spire.
— Sam J. Charlton, The Well of Secrets
The magical gem bracelet, in all of its yellow beauty, was out of its league. My mind and heart couldn't slow down." --- Jennifer Mills
— Dianne Bright, Soul Reader
Anyway, it’s unthinkable! Dragons and knights are born enemies. They need to be enemies just like dogs hate cats, cats hate mice and mice hate scientists. Without somebody to hate where would all the hate go? The hate would just boil up inside you, eat away and cause you to have indigestion then a heart attack. We need to release the anger, and we release it on dragons who release it back on us. We slay them and they roast us. It is the natural order of things, Emma.
— Elias Zapple, Cyril the Dragon
All night, I thought about that walk. The touch of the forest tickled my skin long after, while the scent lingered in my nostrils. It was unlike anything back home. There was a feeling in the atmosphere I couldn't shake--something that was trying to draw me back. I felt alive in that forest. --His Name is Moonlight
— Kellie Thacker
I mind-melded the details trapped inside my head since it felt easier than talking, which surprised me." -- Jennifer Mills from Soul Reader by: Dianne Bright
— Dianne Bright, Soul Reader
I felt empowered by him, as if his very existence manipulated the balance of my nature from a shy little girl to wonder woman.
— Kellie Thacker, His Name is Moonlight
You would have only seen a skittish young deer jumping through the forest, having no idea it was a little girl.
— Kellie Thacker, His Name is Moonlight
I'm going to tell you something I probably shouldn't.
— Kellie Thacker, His Name is Moonlight
You mistake us for abstaining your kind from undeserving happiness when all we do is to fight for our cause. We are soldiers, not rebels.
— Calvin Vronsky, The Gambit
Their blissfully soft texture calmed me but alerted me at the same time. I couldn't explain the gentle spark of light that dripped off the edges. And of course, the aqua trim felt way too familiar.
— Dianne Bright, Soul Reader
We would learn as much as we could, be as honourable as we could, be as courageous as we could, and be as happy as we could.
— S.L.  Mills, GOM's Gold
Just as he was looking at all the stars and wondering how many millions there were, they started to blink on and off repeatedly. He knew it was the Bach flying overhead. He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut, and slipped off into a restless sleep.
— Stephan von Clinkerhoffen, Stig's Flight of Encounters
I grabbed back at him just as incautiously with my hand and my magic both, even as he pressed magic on me from his side as well. His breath huffed out sharply, and our workings caught on one another, magic gushing into them.
— Naomi Novik, Uprooted