The reader wants to see something happen between pages one and four hundred, and nothing happens if the characters don’t change.
What we have in life that we can count on is who we are and where we come from, she thought absently. For better or worse, that is what we have to sustain us in our endevors, to buttress us in our darker moments, and to remind us of our identity. Without those things, we are adrift.
If you are always frightened for yourself you can’t act, and then life loses its purpose. You just have to tell yourself that, when you get right down to it, you don’t matter all that much.
What you write chooses you.
She has her gown nicely in place tonight, doesn’t she? Black velvet and sparkles, not a thread left hanging. Clever girl, this city. Even the sky is her friend.
Who would you be but who you are?
I am incomplete without my work. I am so closely bound to it, so much identified by it, that without it I think I would crumble into dust and drift away.
Herein lies the heart and soul of the nations. Their right to be free men, Their desire to live in peace, Their courage to seek out truth, Herein lies the Sword of Shannara.
Deception is mostly a game we play with ourselves.
If you don’t think there is magic in writing, you probably won’t write anything magical.
Friendship doesn’t have anything to do with shoring up weakness. It has to do with respect and consideration for those you care about. It has to do with wanting to give something back to those you admire.
We should not be less than what we are.
My interests are different now than they were thirty years ago.
Anyway, several rewrites later, Del Rey Books did publish my first novel, and it did become the first work of fiction on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list.
A world in which elves exist and magic works offers greater opportunities to digress and explore.
For a writer, its very attractive to stay in one world for a time.
Testing of self is a regular part of our own lives, so it seems natural to make it a part of the lives of my characters, as well, albeit on a much different level.
When I was a kid, we had to rely on our imaginations for entertainment.
I cannot imagine life without books any more than I can imagine life without breathing.
My breakthrough as a reader was when I discovered the European adventure story writers – Alexander Dumas, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, to name a few.
Might have, could have, may have, should have – the haves and have nots reduced to pointless possibilities.