Fantasy Authors

"Deep, deeper than we believe, lie the roots of sin; it is in the good that they exist; it is in the good that they thrive and send up sap and produce the black fruit of hell."

"If one is anxious to write about God, one ought to be anxious to write well."

"Christianity and life ought to be one."

"She was dead, but her very death heightened that word "supernatural"; it was what she, not being, was."

"“Aren’t you even curious?” he asked. “A million worlds out there with more wonders than I could tell you in a million years, and you don’t even want to ask a question?”"

"Under the attentiveness was fear, and something else. Anger, hate—the instinctive rejection of an intolerable truth."

"Invisibility is a condition of godhead. If folk could see them, they would know the truth, and the Lords Protector would cease to be divine."

"Stark said wearily, “I don’t think you understand.” Normally he was tolerant of tribal fancies, but he felt no great tenderness for the Outdwellers. “The stars are already defiled. They’re only suns, like that one over your head. They have worlds around them, like this one under your feet. People live on those worlds, people who never heard of Outdwellers or their footling goddess. And the starships fly between them. It’s all going on out there, this second as you stand here, and nothing you can do will stop it.”"

"“Better to make haste slowly than not at all,” said Amnir sententiously."

"Stark did not like them. There was a touch of madness in them, born of the long dark and the too-long-held faith."

"The Thyrans came on, as merciless as time."

"The man who doesn’t fear, doesn’t live long. I fear everything."

"There was a smell in the air now. The hot, close, frightening small of mob; mob excited, hungry, dreaming blood and death. The primitive in Stark knew that sweaty acridity all too well."

"But for today, yesterday, tomorrow, it is not important. Time goes on without any of us. Only a belief, a state of mind, endures, and even that changes constantly, but underneath there are two main kinds—the one that says, Here you must stop knowing, and the other which says, Learn. Right or wrong, the fruit was eaten, and there can’t ever be a going back. I have made my choice."

"With any luck. Stark smiled cynically. Not that he did not believe in luck. Rather, he had found it to be an uncertain ally."

"The mountains dwindled away into hills covered with a dark, stunted scrub. Beyond them the land flattened out to the horizon, a treeless immensity of white and gray-green, a spongy mossiness flecked with a million icy ponds. The wind blew, sometimes hard, sometimes harder."

"I have let it blow through me, and it is just a wind. I have let the words sound in my ears, and they are nothing but words, spoken by an ignorant man with a dusty beard. They do not stir me, they do not touch me. I am done with them, too. I know now what lies across the land, the slow and heavy weight. They call it faith, but it is not faith. It is fear. The people have clapped a shelter over their heads, a necessity of ignorance, a passion of retreat, and they have called it God, and worshiped it."

"I can’t tell you if the stories are true. Men lie without meaning to. They talk as if they had been part of a thing that happened to someone they never knew and only heard of by sixth remove."

"“I thought they knew,” Len said. “I thought they were sure of it.” “Research isn’t done that way.” “But how can they spend all that time, and maybe that much more again, if they know it might be all for nothing?” “Because how would they know if they didn’t try? And because there isn’t any other way to do it.”"

"“Hell, how do you think the human race ever learned anything, except by trial and error?” “But it all takes such a long, long time,” said Len.” “Everything takes a long time. Birthing takes nine months, and dying takes you all the rest of your life, and what are you complaining about, anyway?”"

"No matter which way I go I know now that I will never have peace. For peace is certainty, and there is no certainty but death."

"“Was he trying to frighten you?” “I don’t think so,” said Len. “I think he was just telling me the truth.”"

"“I guess we’ve got a lot to learn.” “Quite a lot,” said Hostetter thoughtfully. “It won’t be easy, either. So many things will jar against every belief you’ve grown up with, and I don’t care how you scoff at it, some of it sticks to you.”"

"“Will it always stay like this?” “Nothing,” said Hostetter, “ever stays always like anything.”"

"You can’t destroy knowledge. You can stamp it under and burn it up and forbid it to be, but somewhere it will survive."

"I am finished with running. Now I will stop and choose my way. Sooner or later a man has to stop and choose his way, not out of the ways he would like there to be, or the ways there ought to be, but out of the ways there are."

"“I grew up with the idea of it,” said Hostetter. “Nobody ever taught me that it was evil or forbidden, or that God had put a curse on it, and that’s the difference.”"

"He could hear Pa’s voice saying, “A man’s religion, his sect, is his own affair. But those people have no religion or sect. They’re a mob, with a mob’s fear and cruelty, and with half-crazy, cunning men stirring them up against others.”"

"“Why did they do it?” he asked. “Because they’re afraid.” “Of what?” “Of yesterday,” said Mr. Hostetter. “Of tomorrow.”"

"Knowledge is not like sin. There is no mystical escape from it."

"There’s never been an act done since the beginning, from a kid stealing candy to a dictator committing genocide, that the person doing it didn’t think he was fully justified. That’s a mental trick called rationalizing, and it’s done the human race more harm than anything else you can name."

"Having engaged in vigorous and passionate debate while on their honeymoon trip from New York, they had arrived at the startling—and rather liberating—conclusion that the marriage itself was not at all necessary. Stanton no longer had a name to give, and taking Emily’s would have involved all the tedium of authority and nonsense they’d hoped to avoid. So, in the end, he had returned to her the simple gold band she had worn for so long, sliding it onto the ring finger of her new right hand. And she had given him a soft slow kiss. They were the only vows required."

"“Credomancy may seek to exploit the human desire for a tidy narrative where an unblemished romantic hero vanquishes all obstacles, but such ideals have very little to do with reality. Reality requires pragmatism and compromise. Men fail. Women fail. There are no heroes, only human beings who somehow find the strength to behave heroically, no matter how many times they have been unable to do so in the past. If you understand that, Miss Edwards—if you truly and deeply understand that, then you will understand the most powerful thing anyone with a heart can understand.” “And what’s that?” Emily said softly. “That love is not enough. But it’s a start.”"

"Spread out before the pyramid, as far as the eye could see, stretched a frozen ocean of blackness—stinking oily blackness that bubbled and churned. Voider than void, colder than cold, deader than dead. It is your world. It is the world we will make for you."

"“Don’t lie,” he said. “That’s my job.”"

"“Your frontier ethics are so rawboned, Miss Edwards, as rough-hewn and clumsy as the log cabin in which you must have been raised.” Mrs. Stanton’s face was like marble as she spoke; only her lips moved with ugly precision. “Decency is striving for perfection in a world in which every other hoglike creature satisfies himself with sloppiness and indulgence. Decency is not in failing to murder someone. It’s in murdering the right person, and sparing your family the indignity of getting caught.”"

"Nothing is ever what you want it to be. The harder you grab for it, the more deeply it cuts. And it mocks you for being foolish enough to reach for it at all. You come to fear touching anything at all, because you know that if you do, it will become terrible."

"The shortness of the woman’s replies indicated that Emily was asking questions Miss Jesczenka didn’t particularly want to answer, but those were usually the questions that most needed to be asked."

"“What kind of idiot do you think I am?” ”I have no idea what kind of idiot you are,” Miss Jesczenka said. “That’s why I’m asking.”"

"There is a difference between not understanding and being willfully obtuse."

"Emily already knew there was going to be hell to pay, and she supposed there was no use allowing it to accrue interest."

"“Was your mother furious?” “She’ll get over it,” Stanton said. “Perhaps not in this lifetime, but I happen to believe in reincarnation, so there’s still hope.”"

"She was painfully aware that doing one’s best was never assurance that it wasn’t the wrong choice anyway."

"It was disappointing, as if a wish she didn’t know she’d made hadn’t come true."

"“I’m sorry Mr. Stanton, really I am. I didn’t mean to miss it. Things...happened.” “Oh, well. Things happened. How nice to have that cleared up.”"

"The obsessive rules of etiquette struck Emily as mean-spirited, like the old trick of tying someone’s shoelaces under the table. It was only fun if you liked watching people fall down."

"“It is a great weakness of credomancers, Miss Edwards. They often believe their own press.” ”You’re a credomancer, too,” Emily said. “I’m also a woman. Failure, struggle, and doubt are my constant companions. They are not always pleasant, but they inoculate me against overconfidence. As such, I would not trade them for all the arrogant bravado in the world.”"

"Emily pounded on the door, assuming it would do no good, but finding the act of pounding very satisfying indeed."

"But it was impossible to remain so long in the company of a female, even a divine one, without suffering some form of disillusionment."

"In his idle hours, Heusler sometimes amused himself by trying to conceive of a crime a mortal man could commit that was more monstrous than making a goddess fall in love with him. He had never succeeded."