Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
You have a point," said Fronto, "and even a poet must occasionally bow to logic.
For the deeds of a man, not the words of a prophecy, are what shape his destiny.
I was afraid that not even Merlin the Enchanter could transform me into a writer.
No matter what has happened, you're not a pig-boy; you're an Assistant Pig Keeper!
What seems to be love beyond any question is usually a simple case of indigestion.
Seize the day, whatever's in it to seize, before something comes along and seizes you.
It was 1943. The U.S. had already entered World War II, so I decided to join the army.
My imagination can do whatever it wants to do. This gives me a great sense of freedom.
Thinking is a bit uncomfortable, but you'll get used to it. A matter of time and practice.
If writers learn more from their books than do readers, perhaps I may have begun to learn.
Neither refuse to give help when it is needed,... nor refuse to accept it when it is offered.
If a storyteller worried about the facts - my dear Lucian, how could he ever get at the truth?
At the end of knowledge, wisdom begins, and at the end of wisdom, there is not grief...but hope
Child, child, do you not see? For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are.
How easy it is to think well of ourselves. Until the moment is upon us, we can never be certain.
King Constantine IX of Regia had been killed three times and was bored with it. He wanted a bath.
Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, and so many others were my dearest friends and greatest teachers.
A crown is more discomfort than adornment. If you have learned that, you have already learned much.
After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.
You know how chickens are, imagining the world coming to an end one moment, then pecking corn the next.
Do you not believe that animals know grief and fear and pain? The world of men is not an easy one for them.
This much have I learned: A man's life weighs more than glory, and a price paid in blood is a heavy reckoning.
It is harsh enough for each man to bear his own wound. But he who leads bears the wounds of all who follow him.
My family pleaded with me to forget literature and do something sensible, such as find some sort of useful work.
Talented people are finding that writing for young people is as demanding of high quality as writing for adults.
I know that some readers think (The High King) should have ended differently. I cried for three days afterwards.
Just because you've seen something doesn't mean you'll stop looking. There's always something you didn't see before.
We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
Stale water is a poor drink. Stale skill is worse. And the man who walks in his own footsteps only ends where he began.
If I do find pride, I'll not find it in what I was or what I am, but what I may become. Not in my birth, but in myself.
All agreed that Quickset was the cleverest cat in the world. And, since Quickset had the same opinion, it was surely true.
Classical heroes are usually much larger than life. They're not quite human beings. They're somehow larger than human scale.
The only thing a cat worries about is what's happening right now. As we tell the kittens, you can only wash one paw at a time.
I never saw fairy tales as an escape or a cop-out... On the contrary, speaking for myself, it is the way to understand reality.
I can't make sense out of that girl," he said to the bard, "Can you?" "Never mind," Fflewddur said, "We aren't really expected to.
I have never known courage to be judged by the length of a man's hair. Or, for the matter of that, whether he has any hair at all.
The destinies of men are woven one with the other, and you can turn aside from them no more than you can turn aside from your own.
King Arthur was one of my heroes - I played with a trash can lid for a knightly shield and my uncle's cane for the sword Excalibur.
That is why your sacrifice was all the more difficult. You chose to be a hero not through enchantment but through your own manhood.
Forgive me....I called you an idiot. I spoke too hastily. You are not. Had I given it more thought, I would have called you a scoundrel.
Craftsmanship isn't like water in an earthen pot, to be taken out by the dipperful until it's empty. No, the more drawn out the more remains.
I can't stand people who say 'I told you so.' That's worse than somebody coming up and eating your dinner before you have a chance to sit down.
I used the imaginary kingdom not as a sentimentalized fairyland but as an opening wedge to express what I hoped would be some very hard truths.
Draw Dyrnwyn, only thou of noble worth, to rule with justice, to strike down evil. Who wields it in good cause shall slay even the Lord of Death.
Once you have courage to look upon evil, seeing it for what it is and naming it by its true name, it is powerless against you, and you can destroy it.
Paradoxically, in fantasy for young people I was able to express my own deepest feelings and attitudes more than I had ever done in writing for adults.
Keep out of this," Lucian said. "I'm not smiting anybody." "You're showing mercy." Catch-a-Tick nodded. "That's heroic, too. But not as good as smiting.
The muse in charge of fantasy wears good, sensible shoes. No foam-born Aphrodite, she vaguely resembles my old piano teacher, who was keen on metronomes.
When I was discharged, I attended the University of Paris and met a beautiful Parisian girl, Janine. We soon married and eventually returned to the States.
He was a great poet" They lamented. No, he was not a great poet," said Theo, "He was a good poet, he could have been better. That's the real loss don't you see?