Quotes from Tamora Pierce

There's plenty more fish in the sea than Prince Jonathan," he told her softly. "And this particular fish loves you with all his crooked heart." -George to Alanna

The bravest person I know is afraid of the dark. She sleeps with a night lamp always, but if her friends are threatened? She suddenly thinks she's a bear twelve feet tall and attacks whoever scared her friends.

Girls are 50% of the population. We deserve to represent 50% of the heroes.

Military folk," Neal said with exaggerated patience, shaking his head. "The only way you know to solve problems is by beating them with a stick.

You must tell Lady Alanna that sometime. I'd do it from a distance.

Men don't think and differently from women - they just make more noise about being able to.

You're more trouble than you're worth." "I'm a girl. That's my job.

Libraries are places where the damaged go to find friends

Don't call me 'gentleman'. I work for a livin'.

Seniors get to do all the jolly things," Owen complained as they walked to archery practice that first day. Neal glared at the chubby second-year with all the royal disdain of a vexed lion. He was limping from a staff blow to the knee. "You are a bloody minded-savage," he informed Owen sternly. "I hope you are kidnapped by centaurs.

Most humans think the appearance of quiet is quiet. They do not see that sometimes the enemy is as quiet as the serpent. Only when it has stolen all of their eggs will they know bad walks in the quiet as well as the noisy.

You haven't been bit till a dragon does it.

After I recovered from 'Lioness', I wanted to write something about animals because I really like mythical creatures, especially dragons. At 12, I was one of those semi-recluses who did better with animals than people. Out of that, came the character, Daine, who could communicate with animals.

I will tell the stork-man.

Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman' just rocked my world in the late '80s and early '90s. I couldn't read them fast enough.

There is a saying in the Islands. Beware the women of the warrior class, for all they touch is both decorative and deadly.-Yuki

Men don't think and differently from women - they just make more noise about being able to.

If you aren't having fun, if you aren't anxious to find out what happens next as you write, then not only will you run out of steam on the story, but you won't be able to entertain anyone else, either.

What happens to each of my female heroes, certainly, is they find something bigger than themselves that they are honored to serve. It's not giving up your family.

Publishers have realized that, unlike the previous time period, American teenagers are both smarter and require more topical material than they had been giving them before that. For one thing, they'll read thicker books. Besides, has anybody looked at the news or read the newspapers recently?

One of the things I strive for is realism. I need to be as real as possible in the dilemmas my characters face.

With each book, in each place, I have to keep an ongoing map as I write because otherwise I don't know where I am.

You are the Protector of the Small. You see real people in the humans and animals overlooked by your peers. There will always be work for you.

I'd like to find whoever taught the Stump that extra work builds character and push him down the stairs," Neal told Kel at lunch.