We make real that to which we pay attention. The Master knows this. The Master places himself at choice with regard to that which she chooses to make real.
Nothing in this world is real.
Words are merely utterances: noises that stand for feelings, thoughts, and experience. They are symbols. Signs. Insignias. They are not Truth. They are not the real thing.
The real world has no obligation to be convincing, so it throws up some very weird moments sometimes.
Real life doesn’t have to be convincing, but fiction does.
I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.
Rule one of reading other people’s stories is that whenever you say ‘well that’s not convincing’ the author tells you that’s the bit that wasn’t made up. This is because real life is under no obligation to be convincing.
It goes without saying that all of the people, living, dead, and otherwise, in this story are fictional or used in a fictional context. Only the gods are real.
In Hollywood the man who cleans your pool is an actor. The man who sells you your copy of Variety is an actor. I don’t think there’s a real person left in the place.
First rule of magic: Don’t let anyone know your real name. Names have power.
Fear is contagious. You can catch it. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to say that they’re scared for the fear to become real. Mo was terrified, and now Nick was too.
You don’t get explanations in real life. You just get moments that are absolutely, utterly, inexplicably odd.
I move from dreamer to dreamer, from dream to dream, hunting for what I need. Slipping and sliding and flickering through the dreams; and the dreamer will wake, and wonder why this dream seemed different, wonder how real their lives can truly be.
The real problem with stories – if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.
In my dream, it was the tongue of what is, and anything spoken in it becomes real, because nothing said in that language can be a lie. It is the most basic building brick of everything.
I’ve known from long ago that the universe was calling me. If you were one of those annoying adults that said, ‘Oh, what are you gonna be when you grow up?’ I would say, ‘Astrophysicist .’ And then they’d walk away real quickly.
While I’m a big fan of science fiction, especially as rendered in expensive Hollywood blockbusters, it’s the real universe that calls to me. To fall into a black hole, that is more amazing than anything I’ve ever read in a science-fiction story.
I never got into ‘Star Wars.’ Maybe because they made no attempt to portray real physics. At all.
An organisation can only carry out its mandate if there is discipline, and where there is no discipline there can be no real progress.
A real leader uses every issue, no matter how serious and sensitive, to ensure that at the end of the debate we should emerge stronger and more united than ever before.