Quotes from Brandon Sanderson

Ten people, with Shardblades alight, standing before a wall of black and white and red.

Though in this genre we write about the fantastic, the stories work best when there is solid grounding in our world. Magic works best for me when it aligns with scientific principles. Worldbuilding works best when it draws from sources in our world. Characters work best when they're grounded in solid human emotion and experience.

Kelsier's men fought with passion—despite their other, numerous hindrances, they still had this one advantage. This is what happens when you finally convince them to fight. This is what hides within them all.

The dog chewing on your ankle is pleasant compared to the one that used to be chewing on your head." "Nice metaphor," I noted.

At that moment, she remembered something. Something Sazed had said. You must love him enough to trust his wishes, he had told her. It isn't love unless you learn to respect him—not what you assume is best, but what he actually wants….

He wanted to go. He hurt so much. He wanted it all to end, to go away. Everything. He just wanted it to stop.

All life worked in concert, he'd been taught in his youth. Everything but men, who refused their place. Who destroyed instead of added.

Each time she appears, she narrows that down for us. Since she can only make projections five miles away from wherever her base is, each time she does appear, we learn more about where she might be." I nodded slowly. "Like a catapult that shoots enormous grapes.

how often has "hope" been the reason someone refuses to move on and accept a realistic attitude? How often has "hope" caused more pain or delayed healing? How often has "hope" prevented someone from standing up and doing what needs to be done, because they cling to a wish for everything to be different?

Journey before destination you bastard.

The day of heroes has passed," Uncle Edwarn said. "The stories of people breaking out of history belong to another world. We have reached an era of modernism, both louder and more silent at the same time. You watch. Where once kings and warriors shaped the world, now quiet men in offices will do the same—and do it far, far more effectively.

Well, I didn't wanna kill someone in cold blood—" "That's good, I suppose." "—but there weren't no fire around to light her with first.

Sarene laughed wryly. "You love me, Father - no parent wants to admit that is daughter is unattractive. The truth of the matter is, no man wants an intelligent wife.

That doesn't matter," she said. "You came back. No one's ever come back before.

A man doesn't have to like his duty. He just has to do it." She

Don't try," Waxillium said. "Logic doesn't work on Wayne." "I bought a ward against it off a traveling fortune-teller," Wayne explained. "It lets me add two 'n' two and get a pickle." "I … have no response to that," Marasi said.

I can't do the same," she said. "I remember being a child, and assuming the world belonged to me. That I'd be able to seize it when I grew older, accomplish my dreams, become something great. Yet as I've aged, I feel like less and less is under my control. I can't help thinking it shouldn't be that way. How could I have been so in control as a youth, yet often feel so helpless as an adult?

I don't need company to be confident.

Wayne recognized him. The fellow had tried to shoot him, so Wayne had broken his arm with a dueling cane. Downright rude, trying to shoot like that. When a fellow pulls out a dueling cane, you should respond with one of your own—or at least a knife. Trying to shoot Wayne was like bringing dice to a card game. What was the world coming to?

I think we could do far worse than having a fleet of M-Bots on our side. It might get a little strange to talk to you all, but…well, my life isn't exactly normal these days anyway.

Women are difficult enough to understand, he thought, and I had to go and pick the oddest one of the lot.

Black is so monotonous that you can forget about it, but red—you'd always be thinking, 'Why, look at that. That hill is red. That evil force of doom trying to destroy me certainly has style.

We honorspren mimic Honor himself. You Cryptics mimic Ã¢â'¬Â¦ weird stuff?" "The fundamental underlying mathematics by which natural phenomena occur. Mmm. Truths that explain the fabric of existence.

How remarkable," he said. "If you spend your life knocking people down, you eventually find they won't stand up for you. There's poetry in that, don't you think, you storming personification of a cancerous anal discharge?