Brayden Christensen > Brayden's Quotes

“But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Not all those who wander are lost”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

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

“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

“People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“Power resides only where men believe it resides. [...] A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“What do we say to the Lord of Death?'

'Not today.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

“Valar Morghulis.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“I am not questioning your honor, I am denying its existence.”
― George R.R. Martin

“Crowns do queer things to the heads beneath them.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“I lay still for a while, picking up the scattered garments of my mind and trying to assemble some kind of reasonable outfit from them.”
― Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon

“It seemed funny that one day I would go to bed in her arms and the next not feel anything, like a switch had gone off. But no, that wasn’t honest either. This had been building for a long time. Our silences were getting longer. Our arguments more frequent. How do you stay with someone when there are no dreams to build? No purpose to accomplish? No meaning? No meaning —that was the monster that drove us away from one another in the end. Always.”
― Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell

“[Y]ou are here to learn something. Don’t try to figure out what it is. This can be frustrating and unproductive.”
― Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell

“Remember you are never really alone. Although it may feel like it for very long stretches of time.”
― Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell

“I feared the defining point of this Hell was its unrelenting uniformity, its lack of variation from type. If there was a heaven at the end of this, it must be filled with great variety, perhaps a multiplicity of intelligent species spread across universes. Yes, heaven would be as full of difference as Hell was of sameness.”
― Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell

“Yet a strange hope remains. A hope that somehow, something, God, the demon, Ahura Mazda, someone, will see I'm trying. I'm really trying, and that will be enough.”
― Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell

“Maybe God was a demon – that would explain much of the misery of earth life.”
― Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell

“Where do all the things you believed go, when all the supporting structure is found to be a myth? How do you know how or on what to take a moral stand, how do you behave when it turns out there are no cosmic rules, no categorical imperatives?”
― Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell

“Welcome to adulthood." Cob said. "Every child finds a day when they realize that adults can be weak and wrong just like everyone else. After that day, you are an adult. Like it or not.”
― Peter V. Brett, The Warded Man

“Choose a book," she said. "Any book. Bring it here, and I'll show you what else the world can offer.”
― Peter V. Brett, The Warded Man

“There's a wide world out there, for those willing to brave the dark.”
― Peter V. Brett, The Warded Man

“Hiding isn't always enough, Arlen,' Ragen said. 'Sometimes, hiding kills something inside of you, so that even if you survive the demons, you don't really.”
― Peter V. Brett, The Warded Man

“Never believed in Heaven, but I always wanted to die with a spear in my hand.”
― Peter V. Brett, The Core

“Everam, he began, but no words came to him. What did prayer matter? Either the Creator existed or He did not. Either He would help them in their hour of need, or He would not.”
― Peter V. Brett, The Core

“No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Lost Princess of Oz

“I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.”
― Mae West