Fantasy Authors

"Plans were for adventurers. He preferred the goblin approach. Blind panic might not work all the time, but at least it saved you the stress of planning."

"“What are you doing?” asked Nicola. “Making sure I know what I’m doing.” “Better late than never,” Lena murmured."

"“Are you a doctor?” “Better. I’m a librarian.”"

"“Hey, I’m just playing devil’s advocate.” “Since when did the devil need your help?”"

"The mistakes of the past do not excuse the mistakes of the present."

"He hoped he hadn’t killed the guard. He had come here to help the goblins. Though eliminating some of the stupider guards might be construed as helping. He would have to think about that later."

"What do I do? Tymalous Shadowstar didn’t answer. Hello? A little help would be nice. Still nothing. It figured. There was never a god around when you needed one."

"The most difficult part was letting yourself ignore the lies your eyes told. Eyes were like children. If they had nothing to say, they made things up."

"There is no greater pleasure for me than to have someone see a painting or a sketch of mine and say to me “yes, that’s exactly how I always pictured it!."

"Tolkien takes the stance that I believe all of us should take; that is, of decent, though fallible, people struggling against evil. He does not wallow in horrible scenes and images, though horrible events are certainly depicted in his writings. Rather, he dwells on hope, on perseverance, on faith, on honour, and on love. As a result of Tolkien’s own stance, I have rarely painted or sketched a scene from Middle-earth that was deliberately ugly, or dark, or that I intended should in any way glorify or honour the power or the triumph of evil. I wish to follow Tolkien in highlighting light, and life, and the deeply-felt longing we all have for the good, the true, and the beautiful."

"“Earthmaker sounds like a useful person to have around,” Jig said. “Aye. He’s one who rewards his followers. Over a hundred years I’ve offered up my sacrifices and prayed to him for guidance. Far be it from me to guess the mind of a god, but I’m thinking he’ll not repay a century of service by letting us all die here.” Ryslind strolled to the dwarf’s side. “Yet for all of your devotion, your magic is still limited to those powers your god grants you. To be so dependent on the whim of a deity would be disturbing, to say the least.” “It’s called faith,” Darnak snapped. “And it’s a far cry safer than your wizardry. When’s the last time you heard about a priest blowing himself up after trying a new spell and waving three fingers instead of four?”"

"Goblins didn’t pray. They had no use for gods, a disinterest matched only by the gods’ disdain for goblins."

"A wizard am I, whom many dread, With power like a God. So come with me to yonder bed, And see my mighty rod."

"I think of the art of illustration as essentially one of collaboration. It’s a wonderful thing to work with a writer and to discuss ideas and make sure the writer is completely in harmony with and happy with the things I’ve added to the mix."

"I was destined from early childhood. I drew anything and everything. Later when I developed my abilities in high school, I was inspired by storybook illustrations, traditional landscape paintings, surrealism, science fiction art and automotive advertising art. I wanted to use my talents for something along those lines, rather than 'fine art' per se."

"I don’t really the count hours I put into my paintings, to be quite honest. I suspect I might be surprised at how many it takes for an average artwork, because before I even begin painting I’ll tend to ‘lose myself’ in making the drawings and corrections and variations involved in the preliminary stage."

"I’m not free to do whatever I like stylistically, since my work is going to be wedded to the words. The responsibility is to help to tell the story, without interfering with the readers’ imagination. In a way it is a bit more akin to a sets designer or to providing music for a film. You are serving the text and you are serving the story. So that’s what I do. I’m an illustrator. But I think you have to be an artist to be able to do that as effectively I can."

"The more adept one becomes at line work, the more harmonic the composition becomes, the flow and sense of time is arrested by the simple act of truncation, by the edge of the paper or the introduction of a retaining frame. This does not curtail the anticipation of more movement beyond the barrier, that is implicit, but rather causes the eye / cognitive senses to pause and consider the proffered fragment. Time frozen. There is a time in the image making process when the image speaks back to you, and it is always important that you respond to these calls, if you wish to avoid a still-born, airless image."

"My Mother worked for one of the leading theatrical costumiers in London during the early part of the fifties, so I was from the outset caught up, so to speak, in the most intimate workings of the Illusion Machine. Not many young boys knew about the inflatable bra of a particular Hollywood star and the problem of its wayward valves in the fitting room. My toy chests overflowed with the cast offs and oddments from a score of film and theatre productions. And all these years on I often wonder what happened to those chests. Maybe the unsolicited kiss that old crone gave me on the long seat of the red bus in Whalley Range has something to do with it? I was mesmerized by the sheer flurry of it all and receptive to everything that was weird and wonderful. Fact and Fiction were very much in contention and strange worlds could still be reached through the backs of cupboards, if you knew where to look. Bubble gum was made from everglades swamp water and that was a fact."

"I admire much of what I’ve seen in digital painting and drawing, and understand its importance as a new medium with limitless potential, but like synthesized sounds in music, it is telling that it seeks to imitate established art-styles and looks. That’s a practical issue, since it means its traditional-looking artwork can also be transmitted over the internet, and has a life of its own in the cyber realm."

"For me, the edges of a picture are the most important areas. I like to think of the image as a small segment of a much larger scene, so that you feel that, if you could see behind the edges of the "snapshot" there would be something equally, or more, interesting going on. It's a window into another world, but you don't necessarily have to see the window frame. You might even see more clearly without it."

"I’ve realized that as long as I trust in my instincts and love of his work, there is room for much variation in interpretation of even detailed descriptions. Which is a reason to love many other artists’ versions of the scenes, too."

"As with any classic novel, each subsequent reading teaches me a bit more about myself, about the greater world, and about the nature of life and mystery; because at each reading, I approach the texts as a different person."

"Better the lesser of two oddities."

"Logically, Jig knew he was safe. Logic, however, had only a single small voice, and was easily overwhelmed by panic."

"Sometimes the contortions required to spit on Occam’s razor were just as disturbing as the insights one yearned to avoid."

"Because the universe was a cold, callous place. And they had just peered into the gulf separating the astronomically unlikely from the truly impossible."

"“It’s a debate,” he spat, “over truth. Which truth is more true? The inspiring myth or the bleak, blood-caked reality?”"

"“Have you any idea how long and painful my convalescence was?” Berenice shrugged. “Have you any idea how little I care?”"

"I am a pragmatist, said Mab. I do what must be done to make a better world. “Oh, I’m sure you tell yourself that. But so does the woman who tortured Lilith. You sound exactly like her, in fact. The difference is that Berenice actually means it. She doesn’t use the pretense to justify her cruelty.”"

"You’re no stranger to spinning gold from the hay of human misery, are you?"

"Salazar consulted the map again. “Almost there,” he whispered. “Just another mile.” Arthur sighed. “Wonderful.” Anastasia rounded on him. “Go wander the tunnels on your own, you useless pencil pusher. You have zero skills of value to offer to our current situation. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but of all the problems currently facing the city, the Guild, and the Empire, not to mention ourselves, a lack of properly filed paperwork is not one of them.”"

"Alchemy was useful but never compassionate."

"The grotesque machine reassembled its head. The medical servitor stood, emitted a burst of ticktock cog chatter, then flung itself into the massacre with the fervor of a religious zealot."

"I’ve learned to be wary when something makes you this excited."

"Every additional second the king didn’t take a bullet in the eye seemed a good sign."

"Huygens, there are times when I take comfort in my sinful nature, for it means I’ll meet you in hell. I’ll be the one stomping on your jewels with singular dedication."

"We’ve drawn attention to ourselves with our obsessive need to stay inconspicuous."

"To lose the satchel now would prove that God, if He existed, was a truly sadistic son of a bitch."

"“Well,” he said, “you must be feeling very proud of yourself right now.” “It occurs to me that I might be an underappreciated genius.” She paused to clutch the mast again during a particularly hard gust. “But I’ll tell you something. It’s not so wonderful, learning you were right all along to suspect the world is conspiring against you.”"

"Your family excels at being a pain in my ass. Are you certain you’re not part Dutch?"

"“How have you acquired such intimate knowledge of our kind’s innermost construction?” “You know exactly how. You need me because I’m not burdened with a system of mores that hobbles my inquiries. So you can drop the indignation and make yourselves useful.”"

"“If you’re going to insist on giving perfectly logical and reasonable answers to stupid questions,” she said, “you may put a dent in my delusions of genius.”"

"“What the hell was that?” “That was a close call wrapped in some very unpleasant philosophical questions.”"

"It isn’t courtly politics if somebody doesn’t get a dagger in the back."

"It’s not my fault your makers made you humorless."

"Perhaps there really was a God, and He was just as cruel as the humans He made in His form."

"Such were the brittle threads of a relationship built not on trust but on a slurry of fear, mutual codependence, and self-interest."

"“Sergeant,” she said as they mounted the stairs leading to her old apartments, “thank you for treating me like a human being. And, for what it’s worth, I am sorry about how this turned out.” He grunted. “It can’t be undone,” was all he said."

"He’d expected torture. He hadn’t expected surgery."