Quotes from Garth Nix

I like to write books that I would have liked as a child, that would have got me thinking and imagining beyond the words on the page. In a way, my audience is always how I remember myself as a child.

I can understand the natural anxiety of readers when waiting for another installment of a favourite series, but I think it is much more important to get a book right than it is to have it appear on time.

There is never one absolutely right thing to do. All you can do is honor what you believe, accept the consequences of your own actions, and make the best out of what happens.

For all my longer works (i.e. the novels) I write chapter outlines so I can have the pleasure of departing from them later on.

Knowledge, like all things, is best in moderation," intoned the Will. "Knowing everything means you don't need to think, and that is very dangerous.

Authors are influenced by everything they've ever read. If you've read widely enough, it helps you create your own mix.

I tend to think of stories and books as being for everyone, just with an 'entry reading age' rather than an age range.

I loved publishing; I loved working in the book industry, but I've been writing pretty much nonstop since I was 19. I realized very early on that I would need a day job, and I wanted one that was in books.

In any genre you're working in, you can always find a way to tell a particular kind of story. I love fantasy; I love science fiction. I love all kinds of fiction, in fact.

If only one in 1,000 people that I talk to goes on to write a good book, that's one more good book that I've helped along... and maybe it will be a book I love myself five or 10 years down the line.

I have never known what to tell anybody. Except that it is better to do something than nothing, even if the cost is great.

Well met, Mistress Lirael. This ragamuffin, as your servant so aptly described him, is His Highness Prince Sameth, the Abhorsen-in-Waiting. Hence the bells. But on to more serious matters. Could you please rescue us? Prince Sameth's personal vessel is not quite what I'm used to, and he is eager to catch me a fish before my morning nap.

There is never one absolutely right thing to do. All you can do is honor what you believe, accept the consequences of your own actions, and make the best out of what happens.

But we survived, didn't we? That makes it an adventure. If you get killed it's a tragedy.

For everyone and everything, there is a time to die. Some do not know it, or would delay it, but its truth cannot be denied. Not when you look into the stars of the ninth gate.

I am not going to change who I am. I am human and I know how to love, and be kind, and be compassionate to those who are weaker than me. Just because I have power doesn't mean I have to use it!

Fine! muttered Mogget. Wet, cold, and full of holes. Another fun day on the river.

It's always better to be doing.

Yep, said Arthur. Somehow yep seemed the most positive thing he could say. Stronger than yeah and more heroic than yes . He hoped he could live up to it.

I am Abhorsen... He looked at the baby again and added, almost with a note of surprise, Father of Sabriel

Sam picked up his pack, but before he could put it on, Mogget leaped onto it and slid under the top flap. All that could be seen of him were his green eyes and one white-furred ear. Remember I advised against this way, he instructed. Wake me when whatever terrible thing is a about to happen happens, or if it appears I might get wet.

A hundred hundred heartbeats... whispered Sabriel, tears falling down her face.

The most important thing is to be true to yourself, however you feel, and not try to feel or behave differently because you think you should, or someone has told you how you must feel. But do think about it. Unexamined feelings lead to all kinds of trouble.

Even now, she wished she could write a note, push it across the table, and go away to her room. But she was no longer a Second Assistant Librarian of the Great Library of the Clayr. Those days were gone, vanished with everything else that had defined her previous existence and identity.