Fantasy Authors

"“What do you have to say to that?“ “Oh, very little, to be sure, Master Kosta. It’s so hard to think, overawed as I am with the sublime genius of your plan.“ “That bears some vague resemblance to sarcasm.“ “God forfend,“ said Jean. “You wound me! Your inexpressible criminal virtues have triumphed again, as inevitably as the tides come and go. I cast myself at your feet and beg for absolution. Yours is the genius that nourishes the heart of the world.“ “And now you’re—“ “If only there was a leper handy,“ interrupted Jean, "so you could lay your hands on and magically heal him.“"

"I make it a point never to trust men with weapons to my windpipe."

"In time, you’ll come to understand that a state like ours cannot afford to offer up a show of weakness for honesty’s sake; Duke Nicovante charges me with vouchsafing his security, not his conscience."

"I can’t live forever. Each time something like this affair lands in my lap, I suddenly recall that I don’t want to live forever."

"“I suspect that drink has made you impulsive.“ “Drink makes me see funny; the gods made me impulsive.“"

"Hard lessons were handed out. As many men learned to their sorrow, it’s impossible to be intimidating when one angry woman has your cock between her teeth and another is holding a stiletto to your kidneys."

"“‘Commonly thought,’ you say? Many things are commonly thought, but perhaps not commonly thought all the way through.”"

"I’m sure we can communicate. I speak fluent hatchet."

"When you’re a priest, people tend to see the robe rather than the man."

"“Advice,” chuckled Doña Vorchenza. “The years play a sort of alchemical trick, transmuting one’s mutterings to a state of respectability. Give advice at forty and you’re a nag. Give it at seventy and you’re a sage.”"

"It was strange, how readily authority could be conjured with nothing but a bit of strutting jackassery."

"I have always found the presumptions of others to be the best possible disguise—haven’t you?"

"Time’s a river, Locke, and we’ve always drifted farther down it than we think."

"The trouble with creating military dictators, Locke reflected, was getting rid of them after the immediate crisis was past."

"Enlightenment! When it comes, it comes like a brick to the head, doesn’t it?"

"Our patron has always sort of danced upon the notion that austerity and piety go hand in hand; down here, we show our appreciation for things by appreciating, if you get me."

"“Liquor does this? Even after you’re sober?” “A cruel joke, isn’t it? The gods put a price tag on everything, it seems.”"

"You can’t help being young, but it’s past time that you stopped being stupid."

"“This entire situation is insane.” Jean slammed his book shut in disgust. “It was insane before; now it’s become malicious.”"

"You have confused me with someone who knows what’s going on."

"“I sometimes think that ‘friend’ is just a word I use for all the people I haven't murdered yet.”"

"There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated."

"“Sure, kid. Look, there's a very old saying in my family: ‘Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is another wizard fucking with you.’”"

"“You needed a bath,“ Jean interrupted. “You were covered in self-pity.“"

"Most of us find it starkly ludicrous that the height of all possible ambition, to the ungifted, must be to drape oneself in crowns and robes."

"“Better to say nothing and be thought a fool,” said Amarelle, “than to interfere in the business of wizards and remove all doubt.”"

"Damn it, when will you learn that refusing to admit you’ve lost isn’t the same as winning?"

"“How dare you contradict their opinions! You are only a common servant.” “Yes, miss,” he said wearily. “You should be dismissed for being insolent to your betters.” There was a long pause, and then Baine said, “All the diary entries and dismissals in the world cannot change the truth. Galileo recanted under threat of torture, but that did not make the sun revolve round the earth. If you dismiss me, the vase will still be vulgar, I will still be right, and your taste will still be plebeian, no matter what you write in your diary.” “Plebeian?” Tossie said, bright pink. “How dare you speak like that to your mistress? You are dismissed.” She pointed imperiously at the house. “Pack your things immediately.” “Yes, miss,” Baine said. “E pur si muove.” “What?” Tossie said, bright red with rage. “What did you say?” “I said, now that finally have dismissed me, I am no longer a member of the servant class and am therefore in a position to speak freely,” he said calmly. “You are not in a position to speak to me at all,” Tossie said, raising her diary like a weapon. “Leave at once.” “I dared to speak the truth to you because I felt you were deserving of it,” Baine said seriously. “I had only your best interests at heart, as I have always had. You have been blessed with great riches; not only with the riches of wealth, position, and beauty, but with a bright mind and a keen sensibility, as well as with a fine spirit. And yet you squander those riches on croquet and organdies and trumpery works of art. You have at your disposal a library of the great minds of the past, and yet you read the foolish novels of Charlotte Yonge and Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Given the opportunity to study science, you converse with conjurors wearing cheesecloth and phosphorescent paint. Confronted by the glories of Gothic architecture, you admire instead a cheap imitation of it, and confronted by the truth, you stamp your foot like a spoilt child and demand to be told fairy stories.”"

"“Baine, what do you think of this?” Tossie said, indicating the bishop’s bird stump. “Don’t you agree it’s the most beautiful piece of art you’ve ever seen?” Baine straightened and looked at it, blinking water out of his eyes. There was a considerable pause while Baine wrung out his sleeve. “No.” “No?” Tossie said, making it into a screamlet. “No.”... “What do you mean, ‘no’?” “I mean the sculpture is a hideous atrocity, vulgarly conceived, badly designed, and shoddily executed,” he said, folding the shawl carefully and bending to lay it back in the bundle. “How dare you say that,” Tossie said, her cheeks very pink. Baine straightened. “I beg you pardon, miss. I thought you were asking my opinion.” “I was, but I expected you to tell me you thought it was beautiful.” He bowed slightly. “As you wish, miss.” He looked at it, his face impassive. “It is very beautiful.”"

"The continuum had somehow managed to correct the incongruity, pairing off lovers like the last act of a Shakespearean comedy, though just how it had managed it wasn’t clear. What was clear was that it had wanted us out of the way while it was doing whatever it was doing. So it had done the time-travel equivalent of locking us in our rooms."

"If they were part of the self-correction (i. e., of the space-time continuum) what did that do to the notion of free will? Or was free will part of the plan as well?"

"“My physics teacher used to say Diogenes shouldn’t have wasted his time looking for an honest man,” Shirl said, “he should have been looking for somebody who thought for himself.”"

"Management cares about only one thing. Paperwork. They will forgive almost anything else—cost overruns, gross incompetence, criminal indictments—as long as the paperwork’s filled out properly. And in on time."

"Management’ll never go for it. First, it’s live-animal research, which is controversial. Management hates controversy. Second, it’s something innovative, which means Management will hate it on principle."

"Why do only the awful things become fads? I thought. Eye-rolling and Barbie and bread pudding. Why never chocolate cheesecake or thinking for yourself?"

"You shouldn’t be looking for the secret to making people follow fads, you should be looking for the secret to making them think for themselves. Because that’s what science is all about."

"Therein lay the secret to all fads: the herd instinct. People wanted to look like everybody else. That was why they bought white bucks and pedal pushers and bikinis. But someone had to be the first one to wear platform shoes, to bob their hair, and that took the opposite of herd instinct."

"There are moments when rather than reforming the human race I’d like to abandon it altogether and go become, say, one of Dr. O’Reilly’s macaques, which have to have more sense."

"Barbie’s one of those fads whose popularity makes you lose all faith in the human race."

"And why take a chance on a new movie when they can do a sequel or a copy or a remake of something they already own? And while we are at it, why not star remakes in the remake? Hollywood, the ultimate recycler!"

"We came out on Hollywood Boulevard, on the corner of Chaos and Sensory Overload, the worst possible place to flash."

"Ah, Hollywood, where everybody wants to be in the movies and nobody’s ever bothered to watch one."

"I’ve never understood why the faces, who have nothing to sell but an original personality, an original face, all try to look like somebody else. But I guess it makes sense. Why should they be different from everybody else in Hollywood, which has always been in love with sequels and imitations and remakes?"

"“Contrary to popular belief, the computer graphics revolution didn’t kill the musical,” the prof said. “The musical kicked off,” he paused to let the class titter, “in 1965.… “The musicals, with their contrived storylines, unrealistic song-and-dance sequences, and simplistic happy endings, no longer reflected the audience’s world.”"

"In my log, there's nothing worse than working for a government with the guilts. All we were doing on Boohte was surveying the planet, but Big Brother didn't want anybody accusing them of “ruthless imperialist expansion” and riding roughshod over the indidges the way they did when they colonized America. So they set up all these rules to “preserve planetary ecosystems” (which was supposed to mean we weren't allowed to build dams or kill the local fauna) and “protect indigenous cultures from technological contamination” (which was supposed to mean we couldn't give ’em firewater and guns), and stiff fines for breaking the rules. Which is where they made their first mistake, because they paid the fines to the indidges, and Bult and his tribe knew a good thing when they saw it, and before you know it we’re being fined for making footprints, and Bult’s buying technological contamination right and left with the proceeds."

"“What’s going on?” I whispered to Gina. “Management is proving beyond a shadow of a doubt they don’t have enough to do,” she murmured back. “So they’ve invented a new acronym.”"

"“That makes no sense,” I said. “This is the Victorian era,” she said. “Women didn’t have to make sense.”"

"Everyone else had the look of tired patience people always got when listening to a sermon, no matter what the century."

"“The clerk is dying, Rosemund is dying, you’ve all been exposed. Why shouldn’t I give up hope?” “God has not abandoned us utterly,” he said. “Agnes is safe in his arms.” Safe, she thought bitterly. In the ground. In the cold. In the dark."

"Nobody deserves this. “Please,” she prayed, and wasn’t sure what she asked. Whatever it was, it was not granted."