| In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit |
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| For Good |
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| Success is for capitalists, so every time we fail, it’s basically praxis |
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| If even a single person is without food, shelter, and adequate medical care it is failure of both government and society |
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| Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away |
- de Saint-Exupéry, Antoine
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| We don't beg the oppressor |
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| Being loved is NOT a reward for being beneficial or useful in any way |
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| There is no true social revolution without the liberation of women |
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| We must love and care for each other as a radical act of resistance |
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| We don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents |
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| Talent is a pursued interest. Anything that you're willing to practice, you can do |
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| The secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it |
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| Make the thing, and be a little freak about it |
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| The opposite of war isn't peace, it's creation |
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| There comes a time in each life like a point of fulcrum |
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| There is nothing new under the sun |
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| Rent is a tax that poor people pay to rich people for the right to live in society |
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| No doubt because Gil-galad had by then discovered that Sauron was busy in Eregion, but had secretly begun the making of a stronghold in Mordor |
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| Switch to thinking I have no choice but to write a piece of shit |
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| We must beware of a certain craze for collecting which sometimes takes possession of those who make notes |
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| The truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower - until at last he chooses nothing but does only and wholly what he must do |
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| We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings |
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| Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful |
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| Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous |
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| Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet |
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| Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined |
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| Don't confuse honours with achievement |
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| If you don’t know how your story ends, don’t worry. Press on, in faith and hope |
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| When you break through, not everyone close to you will enjoy your success. Accept this |
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| You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. |
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| Continue to fail better—failure of a kind that might even be better than certain forms of success |
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| Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward |
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| Read, observe, listen intensely! — as if your life depended upon it. |
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| Never open a book with the weather. |
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| Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell. |
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| Characters do shocking things, not because the author wishes to shock, but because it is in the character of humans to misbehave |
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| My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit |
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| This whole concept of women being docile and obedient is nothing but wishful thinking. Or why would you put so much effort into lying to us |
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| It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay |
- Boyens, Phillipa
- Jackson, Peter
- Walsh, Fran
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| If that's being queer, then we could do with a bit more queerness in these parts |
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| There is no educational resource in the cosmos greater than a nerd who thinks you’re wrong |
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| Let us take down one of those old notebooks which we have all, at one time or another, had a passion for beginning |
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| I have learned that to be with those I like is enough |
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| My friends are my estate |
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| It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them |
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| Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing |
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| It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter |
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| Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another - I thought I was the only one |
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| There are big ships and small ships. But the best ship of all is friendship |
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| In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures |
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| Of all possessions a friend is the most precious |
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| Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art |
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| we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art |
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| You have to be curious about the world in which you live |
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| Nothing is more important than an unread library |
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| Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice |
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| Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic |
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| Never attribute to the complex that which can be adequately explained by the simple |
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| Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity |
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| He didn’t need priests or lawyers. He just needed the commitment of his own mind and heart, freely given and gladly received. Which he had. Which he did |
- Maltese, Racheline
- McRae, Erin
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| argumentum ad baculum, which means threatening somebody with a stick until they agree with you |
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| I think that the most basic thing of ethics is being aware of how your actions affect others, and having an awareness of what they want and how they feel |
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| You know, no matter what you do, people are going to expect you to be someone you’re not |
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| If you took a couple of David Bowies and stuck one of the David Bowies on the top of the other David Bowie |
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| The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t. |
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| Laws are a threat made by the dominant socioeconomic ethnic group in a given nation |
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| There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion |
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| I think life is way harder than anyone ever admits |
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| War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse |
- Gelbart, Larry
- Hooker, Richard
- Prelutsky, Burt
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| What are we holding onto. That there's some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for |
- Boyens, Phillipa
- Jackson, Peter
- Tolkien, J.R.R.
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| Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way |
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| Every disabled leader who dies takes a library of knowledge with them that they often didn't have the time to write down |
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| It's rotten work. Not to me. Not if its you |
- Euripides (trans. Anne Carson)
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| Now some people will tell you that great writing cannot be learnt. Such people should be hit repeatedly on the nose until they promise not to talk nonsense any more |
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| A wedding, after all, was just a day. A lovely day, to be sure, but still. And a marriage was built much more on trust and love than on ritual and paperwork |
- Maltese, Racheline
- McRae, Erin
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| They don’t let you have anything whole if you don't follow the pattern |
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| When Laurence was old enough to do what he liked, he would be old enough to understand he couldn’t do what he liked |
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| When you didn’t have the vote, sometimes you had to take what power you could grasp with your own two hands. |
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| Powerful men are the same wherever you go—the rules don’t apply to them |
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| Yes, I’m cynical about history. It’s written by the victors, after all |
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| In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. |
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| Suffering can bring one of two things - purification or bitterness |
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| Love is something you do |
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| The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs |
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| When we love someone we let them dictate the terms of who they are |
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| The greater danger is in setting our aim too low and achieving it |
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| People will not forget how you made them feel |
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| In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life - It goes on |
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| Pay heed to the tales of old wives |
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| Its a dangerous business, going out your door |
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| Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds |
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| One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives |
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| There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. |
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| Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, on the edge of the desert. |
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| It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife |
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| Failure is an event, not a person |
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| Do your best until you know better, then do better |
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| Stay afraid but do it anyway |
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| No matter what life throws at you, make good art |
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| There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate |
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| All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us |
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