Robert Fanney > Quotes

“A song she heard
Of cold that gathers
Like winter's tongue
Among the shadows
It rose like blackness
In the sky
That on volcano's
Vomit rise
A Stone of ruin
From burn to chill
Like black moonrise
Her voice fell still...”
― Robert Fanney

“How can I judge?" she said at last. "To me, he is a hero. To the world a monster." She let her head fall into her arms and started crying quietly. "I miss him! Curse him! I miss him!"

Mithorden put a hand on her shoulder and let her cry for a few minutes. A sad smile slowly spread across his face. "I'm glad you can forgive him," he said at last.

Luthiel lifted her head. "How do you know?"

Because you miss him.”
― Robert Fanney

“Someone smashed a flutterfler and without even thinking she touched her Stone and used Wyrd to piece its broken body back together. She filled its empty vessels with dreams and it became the stuff it used for blood. It brushed her cheek with its wings, then flew off -- dancing in the hot air.”
― Robert Fanney

“In my experience, nothing worthwhile has ever really been all that easy. But it certainly has been worthwhile regardless how difficult it seemed. ”
― Robert Fanney

“May your feet ever walk in the light of two suns... and may the moonshadow never fall on you... ”
― Robert Fanney

“Luthiel: I cannot change what will happen. I can only change how I act in the face of it.”
― Robert Fanney

“You or I might think that at least one would show courage and put up a fight. But neither you nor I have suffered as they, and even we have born witness in silence to lesser ills under less dire threat. Yet, in the face of evil, to sit silent is an even greater evil. Complacency is ever the enabler of darkest deeds;”
― Robert Fanney

“Mithorden: 'We become what we do, Zalos.”
― Robert Fanney

“A genius is someone who takes a complex thing and makes it look simple. An academic does the opposite.”
― Robert Fanney

“Leowin: Don't worry Luthiel. 'Truth's existence never depended upon belief.”
― Robert Fanney

“Zalos: 'The world is full of massive things in motion. Little creatures get hurt.”
― Robert Fanney, The War of Mists

“In the depth a light will grow,
A silver shine no shadows know,
Like wings unfolding in the sky,
That circle 'round a gleaming eye,
Turning darkness all away,
Even depths will know their day,
For every shadow has its end,
In light!
Life will return again!”
― Robert Fanney

“To be me is to be different...”
― Robert Fanney, Dreams of the Ringed Vale

“Without realizing what she was doing and more on an impulse than anything else, she leaned forward and kissed him. It was a simple, yet firm kiss and she pulled back after only a moment. But it sent a thrill through her.
He leaned down for another. But she put her finger on his lips to stop him.
"That was my reward to you," she said as they danced. "Don't squander it."
"Reward? he asked still seeming both surprised and delighted at this unexpected attention. "What for?"
"Why for living, Vaelros. And for doing so much else to help me. I will have you rewarded in state as well. But that was just from me."
She saw Vaelros flush and she gave him a brilliant smile. "You don't like my reward?" she asked.
"I do!" he replied. "I want only to learn how to earn more."
The music was fading. The song was ending. Luthiel stepped back and let her hands drop.
"A mysterious thing, my heart," she said. ”
― Robert Fanney

“Is there magic in this world? Certainly! But it is not the kind of magic written about in fantasy stories. It is the kind of magic that comes from ideas and the hard work it often takes to make them real. ”
― Robert Fanney

“To all those women -- strong enough to be heroes; fair enough to be ladies. This song is for you.”
― Robert Fanney

“Othalas: Chosen don't choose themselves!”
― Robert Fanney

“Othalas: Words. What are they but shadows on a page or howling on the wind? They are as ever-changing as the mists below us and it is just as easy to lose sense of yourself among them. I am older than most sorcerers so what I know may, indeed, be close to the truth. Magic, wyrd, words, dreams, they all come from the spirit. Within them lie both power and peril. For to misuse any is to warp your sense of self. To lie in words, or in magic, or in dreams -- that is how you become lost. The lights you see, they were lost long before they came to the Vale. ”
― Robert Fanney

“Rise, Luthiel, in the name of love you came and in the name of love I crown you!”
― Robert Fanney

“Mithorden said it well," she said finally. "It's worshipping death. They say they follow light. But, in the end, they're really following desolation, division, the end of things. You should hear their prophecies -- war, destruction, only special chosen people are spared." She felt sad and angry. Worse, she wondered to what ends people who believed these things would go to assert their views.”
― Robert Fanney

“Mithorden: 'He was brilliant, yes, but ready to laugh at himself when he made mistakes. You may not believe it, but he made mistakes often.'

Luthiel: 'Why?' She choked around her tears.

Mithorden: 'Because he tried to do great things. Anyone can succeed at easy things. But the things Valkire tried were very difficult. He wanted to make things better for people of all races -- for he saw the good in them.”
― Robert Fanney

“Courage is not the absence of fear or despair; it is the capacity to continue on despite them, no matter how great or overwhelming they become.”
― Robert Fanney

“We must be careful what we imagine, fear, or hope for. The echoes of our thought live on in eternity.”
― Robert Fanney

“Writers shouldn't fear criticism. Instead, they should fear silence. Criticism is healthy. It gets people thinking about your work and, even better, it gets them talking and arguing. But as for silence -- it is the greatest killer of writers. So if you hate a book and want to hurt it -- don't talk about it. And if you hate my books -- please, for God's sake, shout it from the hills! ”
― Robert Fanney

“It is the very design of life to support life. ”
― Robert Fanney

“Under tyranny it is right to be a rebel!”
― Robert Fanney

“As an opener, I'd like to state that elves are certainly NOT cliché. It doesn't matter if they all have pointy ears, or they all live a long time, or even if they all like forests. It doesn't matter if they're short or tall or both. It doesn't matter if they're related to forest spirits or even angels. Regardless of how many elves are like one another or how many elves appear in how many books, elves are NOT cliché.

Why?

Well, for one, an elf is a creature. How can a creature be a cliché? Is a human cliché? They certainly do appear in a lot of books! How about dragons? Now there's a popular subject! Are dragons cliché as well? Well what about vampires too? Or werewolves? Or bats? Or rabbits? Or mice? Or owls? Or crows? Cats??”
― Robert Fanney

“If Christ taught us anything it is this -- not to let our fear of death keep us from doing the good thing.”
― Robert Fanney

“Vanye: You're asking me to kill you.
Luthiel: I'm asking you to save her. ”
― Robert Fanney

“Silent. So it should be. You have no place in this world, Luthiel. And there is no other.' Zalos reached out and lifted a few strands of her hair. 'Bright songs and the magic of hope are but a dangerous illusion. The fake comfort of witches charms.”
― Robert Fanney

“There are very few things that live in both this world and the world of dreams. Most are gods, angels and demons. The Stone you hold was made by Vlad Valkire the son of an angel and a demon. By the divine blood that ran in his veins, Valkire could see the light and hear the song of creation -- if only as glimmerings and whispers.
"Over time, he became aware of the light and the music and as he grew so did his understanding of it. At the age of twenty two, he began his greatest labor -- the making of the Wyrd Stones. In them he captured the light and song of creation and by them some of the powers of gods, angels and demons fell into the hands of elves and men. A sorcerer who knows its secret may -- like a god, angel, or demon -- stand with one foot in this world and another within the world of dreams.
"Your Stone is a gateway into the world of dreams, Luthiel. When you sing, it opens and you are, in part, taken there. Others who hold a Wyrd Stone like yours may know when someone crosses into dream. When you sang, I could hear you quite clearly.”
― Robert Fanney

“It is the curse of the powerful to be blind to their own faults.”
― Robert Fanney

“I would rather live than die. I would rather die than survive as a monster.”
― Robert Fanney, The War of Mists

“Dominance. Control. These things the unjust seek most of all. And so it is the duty of the just to defy dominance and to challenge control.”
― Robert Fanney

“It has been often said that writing is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration. In my experience, this is true. But, in my opinion, it is useless without that 1 percent. It's like an engine without fuel -- can't get anywhere without it. Or like a lighthouse without a light on top -- doesn't guide anyone in to home or safe harbor.”
― Robert Fanney

“Mithorden:
I would rather live than die. I would rather die than survive as a monster.”
― Robert Fanney, The War of Mists

“If I could make a dream real, I would not kill anything unless it could never be changed at heart.”
― Robert Fanney, The War of Mists

“The world is a bitter thing
For a dreaming heart to bear alone.”
― Robert Fanney

“I'd say we're all just ghosts on a wire seeking the prick of an electric thought.”
― Robert Fanney

“I can hear your whisper and distant mutter. I can smell your damp on the breeze and in the sky I see the halo of your violence. Storm I know you are coming.”
― Robert Fanney

“The wolf was not far away. After only a short time, he crested a nearby hill. His eyes blazing yellow fire. Fierce. For his mistress called. There she knelt. Queenly and yet so wild. Arrow set to bow - spilling out a bloody light.
At the sight of her, passion filled him. It rose in his gut, swelled his chest, then burst out of his throat. It overwhelmed the air and beat against the starry roof. The howl filled the mounds, rang out through the Vale and then rolled into Minonowe.
She had called him and here was his answer.
The spiders were out there. Running. With Luthiel, he would hunt them.”
― Robert Fanney, The War of Mists

“Wars are won in the will.”
― Robert Fanney