Quotes from Lev Grossman

The separation of word and thing is the essential fact on which our adult lives are founded.

Not that she was a know-it-all—it didn't seem to be an ego thing with her. She just assumed that everybody shared her desire for everybody to be clear on everything, and she'd expect you to do the same for her.

Except it'll still be summer," Plum said. "Backward seasons.

Alice wasn't just the competition, someone whose only purpose in life was to succeed and by doing so subtract from his happiness. She was a person with her own hopes and feelings and nightmares. In her own way she was as lost as he was.

Quentin suppose her unfussy diligence reminded him unpleasantly of the future he was ignoring.

The power to create order is one thing. The power to destroy is another. Always they are in balance. But it is easier to destroy than to create, and there are those whose nature it is to love destruction.

For every hero, don't legions of foot soldiers have to die in the background? It was a matter of numbers, like the corpse in the castle said. Just work out the sums.

You're cramming a few chance data points into a story that has nothing to do with reality. You need to take a giant step back. Take a deep breath. You're way off the reservation." Nobody

And she had those things that one likes about magicians: she was disgustingly bright and rather sad and slightly askew.

What is the point of magic if we can't fix real problems?

The old Quentin might have done it, but he wasn't a creature of fear anymore, jumping at his own shadow. Never knowing who he was or why. When he was younger, it seemed like the only time he wasn't afraid was when he was angry. He had been so full of fear and self-doubt that the only way to feel strong was to attack the world around him.

In real life it was like they were playing some children's game. It was a little kid's idea of a magical object. Though what did you expect from a bunch of talking

He felt like in gym class trying to look like part of the team while at the same desperately hoping nobody would pass him the ball.

She was dying to look, but she supposed that if she lived her life properly then by the time it was over she'd know what was in it. That was sort of the whole point, wasn't it? To understand your own story? Reading the book now would just be cheating. And what kind of jackass cheats at life?

Oh well, another dream dies.

He had reached the outer limits of what Fun, capital F, could do for him. The cost was way too high, the returns pitifully inadequate.

His mind was an icy pond constantly in danger of thawing. He trod on it only lightly-its surface was perilously slick and who knew how thin. To break through would mean immersion in what was below: cold, dark anaerobic water and angry, toothy fish. The fish were memories. He wanted to put them away somewhere and forget where he'd put them, but he couldn't.

And because of everything her family asked of her, she was ashamed of being tired.

It's not the worst thing in the world, admitting you need help. is it?

It's a wasteland out there. Out here. You can do nothing or anything or everything, and none of it matters. You have to find something to really care about to keep from running totally off the rails.

You think Candy Land is real?" Josh said. "'Cause I would ditch Fillory in a red-hot minute for that shit. Chocolate Swamp and all. And have you seen Princess Frostine?" "Maybe

Deja de buscar la siguiente puerta secreta que te lleve a tu verdadera vida, deja de esperar. Ya la tienes; no hay otra. Estás aqui, y más te vale disfrutarla o seguirás sufriendo vayas donde vayas, hagas lo que hagas el resto de tu vida, eternamente.

That night the most amazing thing happened: the stars came down from out of the sky. They weren't used to seeing human beings, so they weren't afraid. They were like tame birds—they were all around me, a few feet off the ground, each one about the size of a softball. Spiky, and a little warm, and they sort of squeaked. You could hold them.

to live out childhood fantasies as a grown-up was to court and wed and bed disaster