Fantasy Authors

"I will admit that I have not heard that he would directly violate his word or go back on a bargain, though he is certainly more than capable of obfuscation and creative interpretation where it suits him."

"Here’s where I’m going wrong. Well, one of the many ways I am going wrong. I feel superior to these people. I’m from the twenty-first century. So much more enlightened than them. That’s bullshit, of course. I have the advantages of the modern world. Thinking it makes me smarter is the polar opposite of “enlightened.”"

"Fate deals unexpected hands, and we learn to play the cards we are given."

"Scotland has a reputation for overcast, drizzly weather, but in Edinburgh you get the wind thrown in for free."

"“Have you been drinking?” I say. “Why does everyone ask me that when I am in a good mood?”"

"Victorian flirting doesn’t require much. Flatter him. Laugh at his jokes. Let him ogle my cleavage. Okay, this probably also works in my own time."

"Yet not everyone reading broadsheets realizes they aren’t accurate reporting, making them the internet news sites of the Victorian era."

"He was the worst sort of gentry—the sort that mistakes the luck of birth for an actual accomplishment. As if he chose to be born into money and title and had nothing but contempt for those of us lacking the foresight to do the same."

"Science and popular opinion rarely progress at the same rate."

"I feel that the more I discuss the future with you, the more discouraged I become."

"I’d never say I don’t want him coming to my rescue if I need it. I’m a feminist, not an idiot."

"After all, women feign interest in men all the time to better their positions."

"She isn’t old and cranky. She’s just cranky."

"There’s cruel, and then there’s downright evil."

"Ultimately, you are his physician, which is probably why he is about to die."

"He flips a thruppence my way. I catch it. “Why thank you, sir. I find I have grown most fond of money.” “Odd. That seems a common condition among those who do not have it.”"

"I no longer wonder at Victorian mortality rates. Now I just marvel that anyone survived at all."

"Judging by what I read of Lady Inglis’s letter, Victorians are having—and enjoying—sex. They just don’t talk about it. How terribly Victorian of them."

"To her credit, she is interesting. In the same way as a venomous snake."

"My husband is already dead. He only needs to stop breathing to make it official."

"Like so many regulations the Anatomy Act was created to solve one problem and caused another."

"“You can judge a god, an ideal, by the people who worship it, Tom.”"

"The moment of silence stretched out as thin as the content of a congressman’s speech."

"“We shall win, for the honor of Plantagenet or Gramarye, or die nobly.” “I have yet,” Rod said tightly, “to see a noble death in battle. They’re all just a little on the messy side.”"

"“Don’t die for…a dream…”"

"“Rod, you are jumping to conclusions.” “No, just coming up with a brilliant flash of insight.”"

"The important thing about a revolution is that it begin; you can always take control of it later."

"Democracy, the only practical compromise between totalitarianism and anarchy."

"But revolutionaries are always out of place when the revolution is over, and are likely to prove an embarrassing factor to the police forces of the new government."

"Science in the twenty-first century does not encourage scientists to take risks in their pursuit of "the facts"—particularly when those facts call into question long-established notions."

"After the first Neanderthal skeletal remains were identified in Europe in the nineteenth century it was, for a very long while, one of the fundamental unquestioned assumptions of archaeology, a matter taken to be self-evidently true, that other "older", "less-evolved" human species never attained, or even in their wildest dreams could hope to aspire, to the same levels of cultural development as Homo sapiens. During more than a century of subsequent analysis, and despite multiple additional discoveries, the Neanderthals continued to be depicted as nothing more than brutal, shambling, stupid subhumans—literally morons by comparison with ourselves. Since the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, however, and with increasing certainty as the evidence has become overwhelming, a new "image" of the Neanderthals as sensitive, intelligent, symbolic, and creative beings capable of advanced thought processes and technological innovations has taken root among archaeologists and is set to become the ruling paradigm."

"Archaeology is a deeply conservative discipline and I have found that archaeologists, no matter where they are working, have a horror of questioning anything their predecessors and peers have already announced to be true. They run a very real risk of jeopardizing their careers if they do. In consequence they focus—perhaps to a large extent subconsciously—on evidence and arguments that don't upset the applecart. There might be room for some tinkering around the edges, some refinement of orthodox ideas, but God forbid that anything should be discovered that might seriously undermine the established paradigm."

"Our society values alert, problem-solving consciousness, and it devalues all other states of consciousness. Any kind of consciousness that is not related to the production or consumption of material goods is stigmatized in our society today. Of course, we accept drunkenness. We allow people some brief respite from the material grind. A society that subscribes to that model is a society that is going to condemn the states of consciousness that have nothing to do with the alert, problem-solving mentality.And if you go back to the 1960s, when there was a tremendous upsurge of exploration of psychedelics, I would say the huge backlash that followed that had to do with a fear on the part of the powers that be: that if enough people went into those realms and those experiences, the very fabric of the society we have today would be picked apart—and, most importantly, those in power at the top would not be in power at the top any more."

"We have severed our connection to spirit. That's what our society has done. It has sought to persuade us that the material realm is the only realm. And the only way we're going to recover is to reconnect with spirit. And I truly believe we need the help of the plants in order to do that."

"If ever a society could be said to meet all the mythological criteria of the next lost civilization—a society that ticks all the boxes—is it not obvious that it is our own? Our pollution and neglect of the majestic garden of the earth, our rape of its resources, our abuse of the oceans and the rainforests, our fear, hatred and suspicion of one another multiplied by a hundred bitter regional and sectarian conflicts, our consistent track record of standing by and doing nothing while millions suffer, our ignorant, narrow-minded racism, our exclusivist religions, our forgetfulness that we are all brothers and sisters, our bellicose chauvinism, the dreadful cruelties that we indulge in, in the name of nation, or faith, or simple greed, our obsessive, competitive, ego-driven production and consumption of material goods and the growing conviction of many, fuelled by the triumphs of materialist science, that matter is all there is—that there is no such thing as spirit, that we are just accidents of chemistry and biology—all these things, and many more, in mythological terms at least, do not look good for us."

"We can no longer think of the so-called Fertile Crescent of Sumeria as the cradle of civilization. What seems more likely from the large body of evidence I have compiled is that there were a number of cities built before this time which were submerged by rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age... It proved that the methods I was using, the combination of deciphering ancient myths and new technology, actually worked. Of course I still keeping an open mind, but it does suggest I am on the right track after all. Its mainstream archaeology and science that are blinkered."

"Ancient Egypt, like that of the Olmecs (Bolivia), emerged all at once and fully formed. Indeed, the period of transition from primitive to advanced society appears to have been so short that it makes no kind of historical sense. Technological skills that should have taken hundreds or even thousands of years to evolve were brought into use almost overnight—and with no apparent antecedents whatever. For example, remains from the pre-dynastic period around 3500 BC show no trace of writing. Soon after that date, quite suddenly and inexplicably, the hieroglyphs familiar from so many of the ruins of Ancient Egypt begin to appear in a complete and perfect state. Far from being mere pictures of objects or actions, this written language was complex and structured at the outset, with signs that represented sounds only and a detailed system of numerical symbols. Even the very earliest hieroglyphs were stylized and conventionalized; and it is clear that an advanced cursive script was it common usage by the dawn of the First Dynasty."

"Indian thought has traditionally regarded history and prehistory in cyclical rather than linear terms. In the West time is an arrow—we are born, we live, we die. But in India we die only to be reborn. Indeed, it is a deeply rooted idea in Indian spiritual traditions that the earth itself and all living creatures upon it are locked into an immense cosmic cycle of birth, growth, fruition, death, rebirth and renewal. Even temples are reborn after they grow too old to be used safely—through the simple expedient of reconstruction on the same site.Within this pattern of spiralling cycles, where everything that goes around comes around, India conceives of four great epochs of "world ages" of varying but enormous lengths: the Krita Yuga, the Treta Yuga, the Davapara Yuga and the Kali Yuga. At the end of each yuga a cataclysm, known as pralaya, engulfs the globe in fire or flood. Then from the ruins of the former age, like the Phoenix emerging from the ashes, the new age begins."

"We might feel very sure that there is no more to reality that the material world in which we live, but we cannot prove that this is the case. Theoretically there could be other realms, other dimensions, as all religious traditions and quantum physics alike maintain. Theoretically, the brain could be as much a receiver as a generator of consciousness and thus might be fine-tuned in altered states to pick up wavelengths that are normally not accessible to us."

"I breathed in the smoke from my final cigarette. It tasted like acceptance of growing up."

"The Worme Bridge’ stood out for us with its brave story and clear, distinctive voice; it’s a wonderfully dark exploration of the water theme. The story works effortlessly to construct an other kind of reality while grounding itself in the real world. The writing is compelling: the reader is drawn into this family and the strangeness that overtakes them. We found this a powerful piece of writing that continues to haunt the reader afterwards."

"I had just sat on the edge of the river with my knees right up against my chest and cried because ten is too young to know that sometimes your parents have to do what’s best for you even if it hurts you. Even if it hurts them."

"Let me tell you for nothing it was a great relief to find all my toes in the right order and with the right amount of skin and bone. You miss them fierce when you don’t have them."

"“I’ve looked deeply into the hearts of my fellow men, [...] and to be honest with you, I’d rather look into a cesspool.”"

"When some idiot jumps up and starts shouting, ‘My God’s better than your God,’ I don’t pay very much attention—except to hide my purse."

"“What’s really going on in Perquaine?” “A peasant rebellion—at least on the surface.” Albron shook his head mournfully. “The lowlanders just don’t understand ordinary people, do they?” “They haven’t got a clue. The aristocrats spend so much time admiring themselves in their mirrors that they don’t pay much attention to the commoners. From what I’ve heard, these rebellions break out every ten years or so. You’d think that after five or six times, the aristocrats might start to realize that they’re doing something wrong.” “I certainly hope not. If the lowlanders start behaving like rational human beings, the clans of Arum are going to be out of work.”"

"“Surely you don’t agree with that apostate!” “I was talking about his skill, not his message, Aleikon ... He’s good. There’s no question about that.”"

"The theorists make high-minded speeches. Their followers cheer and applaud—briefly—and then they get back to the business of appropriating everything of value."

"A good soldier avoids politics and religion, but if all you want me to do is spank them and send them home, we’ll do it that way."

"“I’ll need a few kegs of your gold, though,” he added. Althalus shrugged. “I had a feeling that might crop up.” “‘Money makes the mare go,’ ” Kreuter quoted. “Wouldn’t she settle for oats?” “She might, but I won’t.”"