Timothy Ward > Timothy's Quotes

“Perfect, that's our plan then. But you'll have to give up being a priest first. I wouldn't want to just sit around whispering and sipping hot chocolate.”
― Ted Dekker, The Priest's Graveyard

“Men and women who had worn suits for decades traded punches powerful enough to crush elephant skulls, dodged and deflected attacks too fast for the eye to follow, and died suddenly, often before the crowd registered the killing blow.
Victors and dead men were separated by a blink of the eye.”
― Zachary Jernigan, No Return

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Each killing steals a bit of humanity until a murderer is nothing more than an animal. A hunger replaces the spirit. A want for what was lost, but as with innocence, the soul can never be replaced. Joy, love, and peace flee such a vessel and in their stead blooms a desire for blood and death.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, The Crown Tower

“By the time the Somnambulist had set her creaking bones to rest on their assigned landing pad, Holden had lost all patience with human stupidity.

So, of course, it came out to meet him.”
― James S.A. Corey

“I’m not going to tell you how to start a bug-powered vehicle, I’m just going to put you inside one with somebody who knows how, and send you off on a ride.”
― Kameron Hurley, Lightspeed Magazine, October 2013

“You can make anything by writing.”
― C.S. Lewis

“If we accept the premise that we’re always wrong, it really removes the incentive to spend a lot of time trying to make good guesses because even the good guesses turn out to be wrong. So, make plausible guesses… and tell a good story.”
― James S.A. Corey

“Sometimes the price of dreams is achieving them.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Percepliquis

“Hadrian shook his head and sighed. “Why do you have to make everything so difficult? They’re probably not bad people—just poor. You know, taking what they need to buy a loaf of bread to feed their family. Can you begrudge them that? Winter is coming and times are hard.” He nodded his head in the direction of the thieves. “Right?”
“I ain’t got no family,” flat-nose replied. “I spend most of my coin on drink.”
“You’re not helping,” Hadrian said.”
― Michael J. Sullivan, Theft of Swords

“Sleep evaded him like an old friend who owed him money.”
― james newman, Ugly As Sin

“Her face had always held too much personality to be merely beautiful.”
― Ian McDonald, Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
― Stephen King

“And then the roar. That roar. The roar of the end of all hope.”
― David Annandale, Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters

“I came to love and resent him as any son would. I suppose he felt something similar for me, but we never spoke of it — never spoke of much, really, nor possessed the words if we'd wanted to.”
― Zachary Jernigan, The Bottom Of The Sea

“If souls existed, they resided in flesh.”
― Zachary Jernigan, No Return

“Every ounce of my cynicism is supported by historical precedent.”
― Glen Cook, Shadow Games

“Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head.”
― Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

“The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real ... for a moment at least ... that long magic moment before we wake.

Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?

We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.

They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth.”
― George R.R. Martin

“His fear was whetted to such a fine edge that he could actually feel it now: a disembodied ball of baby fingers inside his stomach, tickling him from the inside. That's what mortal terror felt like, he realized. Tiny fingers tickling you from the inside.”
― Nick Cutter, The Troop

“Gurdinn ignored him, still speaking to the baron. “I would sooner soak my cock in honey and ask a bear not to bite than trust a Black Noose, my lord.”
Braylar clapped and said, “I wouldn’t have suspected you of such colorful wit, Captain Honeycock. You’re a man of surprising gifts.”
Gurdinn wheeled on him, hand on his sword. “Shut your mouth, right quick.”
― Jeff Salyards, Scourge of the Betrayer

“What?" The dread in her tone told Rob she knew what. "How much longer?"
"Thirty seconds."
She laughed with a panicked urgency. "I just tried to nod. I can't feel my body, but I keep reaching for it, you know?"
Rob nodded, feeling guilty he was able to.
"How about this? I'll just tell you when I'm nodding, or shaking my head, or punching you."
"Oh, no," Rob laughed, "are you planning on punching me often?"
"We'll see."
Rob couldn't help glancing at the timer, though he knew it would only make Winter more aware of what was about to happen. Seven seconds.
"I keep expecting this to get easier, taht it will start to feel as if I'm going to sleep. But it doesn't. Maybe it's not possible to get used to dying."
Rob reached out to comfort her, then remembered it was forbidden and drew back. If not for the surveillance, Rob would have reached under the silver cover and taken her hand, cold and stiff as it would have been.”
― Will McIntosh, Love Minus Eighty

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“For the first time I saw Death as somebody to fear instead of the gangly sack of bones who ate all of my Cheetos and saved over my games on the Playstation.”
― Mercedes M. Yardley, Beautiful Sorrows

“He patted the side of the wyrm's head. The animal did not react: it was a stone fallen from the sky, still smoldering.”
― Zachary Jernigan, Shower of Stones

“My first clue time travel could be possible was in the barber's chair the day before my girlfriend's funeral.”
― Timothy C. Ward, Masters of Time: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Time Travel Anthology

“No shower or vagina could change who he was or what he'd have to live with.”
― Timothy C. Ward, Scavenger: Evolution

“What IS it about this town? I never thought I’d long for the good old days of Nazi robots and dragons.”
― C.T. Phipps, The Rules of Supervillainy

“A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Alex sighed. Of course. Of course his supervisor would be late, and leave him to stand out in the hall all by himself, while he was as nervous as a flea on a scratching dog.”
― J.M. Clarke, Mark of the Fool 2