Lev Quotes

The problem with growing up is that once you're grown up, the people who aren't grown up aren't fun anymore.

Until now, I've been a kind of binge-writer - I'll carve out five or six hours on a weekend day and make a large container of espresso and just bang out a lot of words.

I read a lot of literary theory when I was in graduate school, especially about novels, and the best book I ever read about endings was Peter Brooks' 'Reading for the Plot. '

Oddly, the meanings of books are defined for me much more by their beginnings and middles than they are by their endings.

It's a great thing when you feel that you recognize yourself, deeply and movingly, in a work of literature.

I've stayed in houses that were in the country, and in England, but I'm still not sure that I've stayed in an English country house.

I'm happy to report that 'The New Press' is still in business to this day. But not thanks to me. I was a really bad publishing intern.

I think every fantasy reader secretly believes they know how magic works.

I studied the cello for a long time, from when I was little up through college.

I recognize that on paper, you can't really tell that I'm a fan or a nerd.

I mean, when you're tired of book reviews, you're tired of life.

I guess I was raised in a household with a lot of reverence for the physical sanctity of books. You didn't destroy books.

I came from an anxious, overly intense East Coast academic family. That was the way of our tribe.

And I'm not as young as I once was. At my age, I don't have time to be bored.

A novel with a bad middle is a bad book. A bad ending is something I've just gotten in the habit of forgiving.

Being a writer can be isolating. It's good to be among readers and booksellers.

The life I should be living had been mislaid through some clerical error by the cosmic bureaucracy.

Book tours are excellent things, and one is lucky to get to go on one, but they have a way of leeching away one's will to live.

How often have I met and disliked writers whose books I love; and conversely, hated the books and then wound up liking the writer? Too often.

It's natural for a child to assume that his or her own childhood is unremarkable.

People - me included - want to get excited about books. Good books are a good thing.

It turns out that there is something that can compete with free: easy.

I don't know if I've ever derived such an immediate sense of calm and well-being from any book as I did from 'Right Ho, Jeeves.' It was like I was Pac-Man and the book was a power-up.

Read everything. If you haven't read everything, you'll never be able to write anything.

The real world is horrible.

Genuinely social people never ceased to amaze him. Their brains seemed to generate an inexhaustible fund of things to say, naturally, with no effort, out of nothing at all.

Magic: it was what happened when the mind met the world, and the mind won for a change.

We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler.

My book group has one rule: no books for adults. We read young adult fiction only.

It's a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you're supposed to like it.

He wasn't surprised. He was used to this anticlimactic feeling, where by the time you've done all the work to get something you don't even want it anymore.

Being brave was easy when you would rather die than give up.

The real problem with being around James was that he was always the hero. And what did that make you? Either the sidekick or the villain.

I love playing with the conventions of fantasy, and breaking rules, and crossing lines.

I'm a fantasy writer. I don't do SF. This is important to me. If you're not clear on what genre you're in, everything gets muddled, and it's hard to know which rules you're breaking.

The line between outside and inside is fuzzier in fantasy. Maybe that's something people are looking for.

As a writer I'm more drawn to villains who are just slightly mad.

I feel very conscious of my influences. T.H. White is very important for me.

I read Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I think will subsequently be recognized as one of the first great novels of the 21st century.

My ultimate goal is to drive people back to the books, when I think of an adaptation.

It's wonderful to play around with fantasy, because there are an amazing number of as-yet-unbroken rules out there.

Magic is wild, dangerous stuff. You never realize how useful limitations are until it's much too late.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself. That, and those great big furry spiders.

Whoever said "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", has never driven a car there.

I don't think that movies are too violent. But I do think that popcorn is too expensive, and this can often lead to violence.

Despite rumors to the contrary, a mime is actually a very satisfying thing to waste.

I've spent years trying to "get in touch with my inner child," but now my new therapist tells me it's mostly been inappropriate touching.

My coach once told me "there's no "I" in "team." I responded there's also no "I" in "hackneyed." Then I had to run 12 laps.

People always say you can't win if you don't play

When was the last time someone told you 'Look at the bright side of things' when you were depressed, and you actually paid attention to them? Maybe some people do, but I sure as hell don't.