Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.

Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and nonfiction. And even there, who can be sure?

The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that is cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.

She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an unraveling scarf of butterflies like winged blood.

Archetypes are universal, and, in subtle or extravagant ways, interchangeable.

We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests.

The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.

When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

No one is ever ordinary.

I will draw you back to me. You shall see. By a chain of stars.

This arrogant, perfumed young noble, in his rustling silks and polished lamellar armour, knew nothing of the hardships of war.

History is a vast early warning system.

Just because you spent 4 years studying a subject doesn't mean you have to suffer the rest of your 40 years doing the same.

There's still a fascination with somebody who can write at book length, no matter what the book is.

It would be great if everyone chanted Hare Krishna. Everybody would benefit by doing it.

It is beyond ridiculous that wolves need to study a human or that they are capable of it.

Depression is the reward we get for being 'good'.

Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.

We Americans, we're a simple people . . . but piss us off, and we'll bomb your cities.

I buy newspapers to make money to buy more newspapers to make more money.