The truth doesn't always make a good story, does it?

If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so.

It's time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost.

I got my heart's desire, and there my troubles began.

It was so much easier to be angry. Being angry made him feel strong, even though-- and this contradiction did nothing to diminish his anger-- he was angry only because his position was so weak.

In Fillory you felt the appropriate emotions when things happened. Happiness was a real, actual, achievable possibility. It came when you called. Or no, it never left you in the first place.

It wasn't nothing, but it wasn't everything either.

Language and reality are kept strictly apart—reality is tough, unyielding stuff, and it doesn’t care what you think or feel or say about it. Or it shouldn’t.

Becoming me was the greatest creative project of my life.

You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse.

You just had to get some idea of what matters and what doesn't, and how much, and try not to be scared of the stuff that doesn't. Put it in perspective.

Everyman has the ability to lie but luckily not everyman has the ability to hide their lies masterly!

I have long admired Steinway pianos for their qualities of tone, clarity, pitch consistency, touch responsiveness, and superior craftsmanship.

I do not think that condemning people who murder and killing them necessarily sends out the right message.

I have an instinct for finding the odd location, the dismissed face, the eerie atmosphere, the oppressed mood.

Art is the expression of the conviction that we can have a rational relationship with the world and each other. It isn't the faith or hope that we can, it is the demonstration that we can.

Scientific perspective forces the objects in a picture to disappear away from the beholder instead of bringing them within his reach as painting should.

We may forget him, but God will never forget us. We're forever on his mind and in his plans.

We want to be in a situation under maximum pressure, maximum intensity, and maximum danger. When it's shared with others, it provides a bond which is stronger than any tie that can exist.

O Luther, you had 95 theses . . . The matter is far more terrible-there is only one thesis. The Christianity of the New Testament does not exist at all. Here there is nothing to reform.

The human will is an amazing thing. Time after time, it has triumphed against unbelievable odds.