Quotes from Tad Williams

Read books? That's like eating mielie pap—it start out bad, then it get no better." Joseph took a deep breath and let it out slowly, overburdened by the mere thought of literature.

It's a lot harder being smart than it is being stupid.

a proud man who could do more than he is asked to do. It is not good for the spirit.

I pray that I lose my voice before my tongue ever shames me.

ATTORNEY: "When you sign one of our contracts, it says very clearly on page one hundred and seventeen that all crimes that occur onsite must be immediately and accurately reported to the company.

Always choosing one side of the coin, instead of simply choosing the coin itself. Both have so strongly rejected the other's side that they will regret it one day.

Even the most unpleasant inhabitants of the Edwin Meese Gardens housing project had never tried to shove a basilisk into Ramsey's codpiece.

But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.

tunnel into Ocher Bar, the long cavern below the Counting Room.

Fritti, too, his head full of Hushpad and Firefoot and red claws, finally crossed the borders of the dream-fields. The furry tangle of Folk drowsed and mumbled away the waning Hour of Final Dancing.

The water rose up from the swiftly flowing river at the bottom of the Hararscrape, and from where they crouched the setting sun, shining through this curtain of mist, tore the sky into glittering gold, red and purple.

He was not great; he was, in fact, very small. At the same moment, though, he was important, just as any point of light in a dark sky might be the star that led a mariner to safety, or the star watched by a lonely child during a sleepless night. . . .

no other bosses but mine and my opponents' can have your soul jerked out of your body and sent to the deepest fiery pits to suffer for eternity. Unless you work for Walmart.

Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your head. You'll find what you need to furnish it - memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey. You'll never lack for a home - unless you lose your head, of course...

Rumors have dogged the course of the Anford presidency, his infrequent appearances and moments of public confusion leading to rumors that he is suffering from a brain tumor or degenerative muscular disorder. The White House claims this latest round of tests is merely part of a routine medical checkup, and doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital are, as usual, silent on the state of the president's health. . . .

An idle mind is the Devil's seedbed.

If you spare a dog he will never bite you, but men are not so trustworthy.

God's Blood, have we truly become old? he wondered. I do not feel old. I feel the same, but . . . weathered. Like a ship that has plowed the same waves for many years. The rigging is slack, the sails have holes, but the bottom is still seaworthy.

Books,' Morgenes said grandly, leaning back on his precarious stool, '--books are magic. That is the simple answer. And books are traps as well.' 'Magic? Traps?' 'Books are a form of magic--' the doctor lifted the volume he had just laid on the stack, '--because they span time and distance more surely by any spell or charm.

Xabbu was taught by his people to absorb everything the world gives him and then, after sifting out the most important details, to act on them. But he is also clever and supremely flexible. Faced with a new world, he did not try to force it to comply with his expectations, but began all over to learn the rules, without prejudice as to where the information came from.

As solemn music played, vying with the harsh wind to be heard, the thought came to many of those who watched that although Sesuad'ra's defenders had won an improbable and heroic victory, they had paid dearly for it. The fact that they had defeated only the tiniest portion of the forces arrayed against them, and had lost nearly half their number in doing so, made the winter-shrouded hillcrest seem an even colder and lonelier place.

forgive those assembled for any damnable, prideful foolishness that might be spoken here. We are Your children.

Ah, yes. ''Errors of caution are more likely to be considered at leisure than errors of boldness – but less likely to be considered after a victory.'' In other words, if you are too careful, you are more likely to live, but less likely to win.

Jongleur's eyelids slid up and he turned to regard them. Renie wondered if her own sim face would register a guilty flush. "If you have the energy to whisper like schoolchildren," he said, "then you no doubt have the strength to begin walking again." He pushed himself upright and began to limp down the path.