I have long been a hoarder of quotes. I keep files and files full of them, some organized by theme, some separated by source. I genuinely miss the days when I could show them off and use them to express my current mood in AIM away messages or in LiveJournal subject lines.
This week, the Debs are sharing some of our favorite quotes about writing, books, stories, all of that. For me, some of my favorites are about the craft — and others are about writing fantasy, in particular, and why it’s so powerful.
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“Particles of raw inspiration sleet through the universe all the time. Every once in a while one of them hits a receptive mind, which then invents DNA or the flute sonata form or a way of making light bulbs wear out in half the time. But most of them miss. Most people go through their lives without being hit by even one.
Some people are even more unfortunate. They get them all.”
–Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters
“Writing is flying in dreams.
When you remember. When you can. When it works.
It’s that easy.”
–Neil Gaiman
“It is true that novelists are shameless and obey no decent law, and they are not to be trusted on any account, but some Mysteries even they must honor.”
— Catherynne Valente The Girl who Navigated Fairyland
“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.”
– E L Doctorow
“Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.”
– Katherine Paterson
“I think that pretty much every form of fiction (I’d include fantasy, obviously) can actually be a real escape from places when you feel bad, and from bad places. It can be a safe place you go, like going on holiday, and it can be somewhere that, while you’ve escaped, actually teaches you things you need to know when you go back, that gives you knowledge and armour and tools to change the bad place you were in. So no, they’re not escapist. They’re escape.”
– Neil Gaiman
“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
– Ursula K. LeGuin
“Fantasy is a higher form of Art, indeed the most nearly pure form, and so (when achieved) the most potent.”
– J R R Tolkien
Visit the world that Cass created to escape into in From Unseen Fire, debuting April 17th, 2018 from DAW Books. Pre-order now from Amazon, B&N, Kobo, or your local bookstore!
