Lois Young > Lois's Quotes

“J. R. R. Tolkien, the near-universally-hailed father of modern epic fantasy, crafted his magnum opus The Lord of the Rings to explore the forces of creation as he saw them: God and country, race and class, journeying to war and returning home. I’ve heard it said that he was trying to create some kind of original British mythology using the structure of other cultures’ myths, and maybe that was true. I don’t know. What I see, when I read his work, is a man trying desperately to dream.

Dreaming is impossible without myths. If we don’t have enough myths of our own, we’ll latch onto those of others — even if those myths make us believe terrible or false things about ourselves. Tolkien understood this, I think because it’s human nature. Call it the superego, call it common sense, call it pragmatism, call it learned helplessness, but the mind craves boundaries. Depending on the myths we believe in, those boundaries can be magnificently vast, or crushingly tight.”
― N.K. Jemisin

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”
― George R.R. Martin

“It wasn’t that she didn’t want to die. Nor was it that she wanted to live. She just didn’t want to give up.”
― Fuyumi Ono, The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow

“Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.”
― Philip Pullman

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“To those who’ve survived: Breathe. That’s it. Once more. Good. You’re good. Even if you’re not, you’re alive. That is a victory.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Stone Sky

“Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

“It doesn't take any effort to dream. It's a lot easier than looking at the problems in front of you and figuring out what you're going to do about them. But all you're doing is putting your problems up on a shelf for later, right? That doesn't make them go away.”
― Fuyumi Ono, The Twelve Kingdoms: Skies of Dawn

“But for a society buit on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Stone Sky

“Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”
― Tamora Pierce, Bloodhound

“They don't hate you, my child. They hate what you were meant to become.”
― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

“Didn't they realize that the only way to change things was to act?”
― Tamora Pierce, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

“If I can stop one Heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can Ease one life the Aching,
Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again,
I shall not live in Vain.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Every now and then I like to do as I'm told, just to confuse people.”
― Tamora Pierce, Melting Stones

“I teach you to be warriors in the garden so you will never be gardeners in the war.”
― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
― Mark Twain

“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.”
― Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“People are too complicated to have simple labels.”
― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

“Don't get lost. Give it a try. Go find the place that you're wishing for.”
― Natsuki Takaya

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
― Albert Einstein

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
― Albert Einstein

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”
― Albert Einstein

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
― Albert Einstein

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
― Albert Einstein

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
― Mark Twain

“′Classic′ - a book which people praise and don't read.”
― Mark Twain

“Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.”
― Mark Twain