"I recall playing practical jokes with John Wayne. I once got a whole bunch of keys and had little tags made that said, "If lost, please return to John Wayne, RKO Studios. Reward." And I just dropped them all over town. [He got a lot of] phone calls, people showing up at the studio. He never learned who did it."

"(IL: Did you love Jemisin's Hugo speech directed at the rabid/sad puppies or what?) NH: Nora is graceful forthrightness personified. I still remember her blog post about the ways in which Race/Fail '09 wasn't a failure at all, because people of color in this community began to see that we weren't isolated at all, that we could be a force in each other's support. And because of great initiatives that started, such as publishing ventures and the challenge to read fifty books by authors of color in a year. In fact, I referenced her post in "Reluctant Ambassador." Hers went a long way towards shifting my generalized bad/traumatic feelings about Race/Fail '09 towards one of celebration."

"More recent writers who have knocked me dead include Roberto Bolaño, Ruth Ozeki, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Isabel Quintero and N. K. Jemison."

"Nassun gasps. “That’s horrible! I don’t bother to explain that just because something is horrible does not make it any less true."

"Honor in safety, survival under threat. Necessity is the only law."

"Would’ve been nice if we could’ve all had normal, of course, but not enough people wanted to share. So now we all burn."

"All energy is the same, through its different states and names. Movement creates heat which is also light that waves like sound which tightens or loosens the atomic bonds of crystal as they hum with strong and weak forces. In mirroring resonance with all of this is magic, the radiant emission of life and death."

"When we say that “the world has ended,” remember—it is usually a lie. The planet is just fine."

"You’re abbreviating heavily, not lying. That’s what you tell yourself."

"Put people in a cage and they will devote themselves to escaping it, not cooperating with those who caged them."

"It is surprising how refreshing this feels. Being judged by what you do, and not what you are."

"The Leadership legends have the air of a myth concocted to justify their place in society."

"Honor in safety, survival under threat. Better a living coward than a dead hero."

"My people didn’t use mysterious powers to track you; we used deduction. Much more reliable."

"Weapons have no need of friends."

"“Home is people,” she says to Asael, softly. Asael blinks. “Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.”"

"Syenite wonders if there is any point in hating a crazy man. It’s not like he’ll notice, anyway."

"Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; Death is the Fifth, and master of all."

"“We will continue to serve you, Lady, whether you’re here or not. What prayers shall we say for you at the dawn and twilight hour?” She threw me an odd look, as if checking to see if I was joking. I wasn’t This seemed to surprise and unnerve her; she laughed, though it sounded a bit forced. “Say whatever you want,” she said finally. “Someone might be listening, but it won’t be me. I have better things to do.” She vanished."

"Mother always said that if one must do something unpleasant, one should do it wholeheartedly and not waste effort on regret."

"Peace is meaningless without freedom."

"At least I’m done with adolescence. Never could stand it; if I don’t want to kill someone, I want to have sex with them."

"Those with power would always find some way to exert it over those who didn’t."

"Fear was like poison to mortals; it killed their rationality."

"This was what I’d asked her to give me. I had no right to complain just because it wasn’t what I wanted to hear."

"If they will not love me, fear is an acceptable substitute."

"Magic is merely communication, after all. Communication, and conduits."

"Funny thing, employment. If you keep doing it, you keep getting paid."

"It was the oldest of tricks, to sow dissension between groups that had common interests. Good for deflecting attention from greater mischief, too."

"Unreasoning optimism is a fundamental element of childishness."

"“Even our mortal courtesans have been with gods enough to have acquired a certain ethereal technique.” He smiled a salesman’s smile, though it never once touched his eyes. “That’s what you’re selling. Not sex, but divinity.” I frowned. “Gods, Ahad, at least worship is free.” “It was never free.” His smile vanished. It hadn’t been real, anyway. “Every mortal who offered a god devotion wanted something in exchange for it—blessings, a guaranteed place in the heavens, status. And every god who demanded worship expected loyalty and more, in exchange. So why shouldn’t we be honest about what we’re doing? At least here, no god lies.”"

"I think you’re just so gods-damned certain of your own importance that you haven’t figured it out. So let me make this clear: I don’t care about you. You’re irrelevant. It’s a waste of my energy even to hate you!”"

"Well. Adolescence is all about making mistakes."

"The child in her wanted to do as she pleased, cling to impossible hopes. The woman in her wanted to make sound decisions, succeed even if it meant sacrifice. The woman would win; that was inevitable. But the child would not go quietly."

"It takes great strength to compromise, Shahar. More than it does to threaten and destroy, since you must fight your own pride as well as the enemy."

"I’d come down sick. (I had. It was called adolescence, an evil, evil disease.)"

"That was the way of things, after all. Children had to grow up. They did not always become what others wanted."

"It is a massive palace, each spire of which could house a village; its chambers contain dozens of entertainments. All of these become tedious to the point of torment after two thousand years. Hells, after twenty."

"Sky’s forecourt had been designed by my late sister, Kurue, who had understood two key elements of the mortal psyche: they hate being reminded of their own insignificance, yet they simultaneously and instinctively expect their leaders to be overwhelmingly dominant."

"There was no point in making myself suffer unnecessarily. As a mortal, there would be pain enough in my life, whether I sought it out or not."

"Unconditional love: childhood’s greatest magic."

"“When things are bad, change is good, right? Change means things will get better.”"

"“Well, isn’t that what fathers do?” He had no idea what fathers did. “Love you, even if you don’t love them? Miss you when you go away?”"

"I had never been able to truly hate anyone who’d suffered, no matter what evils they’d done in the aftermath."

"Otherwise it was quiet—that eerie, not-quite-comforting quiet one finds in small towns before dawn."

"I knew what it was at last—the visible manifestation of my will. My power, inherited from my god ancestors and distilled through generations of humanity, given shape and energy and potential. That was all magic was, really, in the end. Possibility. With it I could create anything, provided I believed."

"“I keep hoping you’ll tell me. You’re the god, after all. If I prayed to you for guidance, and you decided to answer, what would you tell me?” “I wouldn’t answer.” “Because you don’t care? Or because you wouldn’t know what to say?” More silence."

"They live forever, but many of them are even more lonely and miserable than we are. Why do you think they bother with us? We teach them life’s value."

"I...regret...what I did. It was wrong. Very wrong. But regret is meaningless."

"Good intentions are pointless without the will to implement them."