Fantasy Fiction Quotes

“One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

“When people dis fantasy—mainstream readers and SF readers alike—they are almost always talking about one sub-genre of fantastic literature. They are talking about Tolkien, and Tolkien's innumerable heirs. Call it 'epic', or 'high', or 'genre' fantasy, this is what fantasy has come to mean. Which is misleading as well as unfortunate.

Tolkien is the wen on the arse of fantasy literature. His oeuvre is massive and contagious—you can't ignore it, so don't even try. The best you can do is consciously try to lance the boil. And there's a lot to dislike—his cod-Wagnerian pomposity, his boys-own-adventure glorying in war, his small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos, his belief in absolute morality that blurs moral and political complexity. Tolkien's clichés—elves 'n' dwarfs 'n' magic rings—have spread like viruses. He wrote that the function of fantasy was 'consolation', thereby making it an article of policy that a fantasy writer should mollycoddle the reader.

That is a revolting idea, and one, thankfully, that plenty of fantasists have ignored. From the Surrealists through the pulps—via Mervyn Peake and Mikhael Bulgakov and Stefan Grabiński and Bruno Schulz and Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison and I could go on—the best writers have used the fantastic aesthetic precisely to challenge, to alienate, to subvert and undermine expectations.

Of course I'm not saying that any fan of Tolkien is no friend of mine—that would cut my social circle considerably. Nor would I claim that it's impossible to write a good fantasy book with elves and dwarfs in it—Michael Swanwick's superb Iron Dragon's Daughter gives the lie to that. But given that the pleasure of fantasy is supposed to be in its limitless creativity, why not try to come up with some different themes, as well as unconventional monsters? Why not use fantasy to challenge social and aesthetic lies?

Thankfully, the alternative tradition of fantasy has never died. And it's getting stronger. Chris Wooding, Michael Swanwick, Mary Gentle, Paul di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer, and many others, are all producing works based on fantasy's radicalism. Where traditional fantasy has been rural and bucolic, this is often urban, and frequently brutal. Characters are more than cardboard cutouts, and they're not defined by race or sex. Things are gritty and tricky, just as in real life. This is fantasy not as comfort-food, but as challenge.

The critic Gabe Chouinard has said that we're entering a new period, a renaissance in the creative radicalism of fantasy that hasn't been seen since the New Wave of the sixties and seventies, and in echo of which he has christened the Next Wave. I don't know if he's right, but I'm excited. This is a radical literature. It's the literature we most deserve.”
― China Miéville

“Courage does not always roar. Valor does not always shine.”
― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

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

“Would you like me to put you out of your misery, before I put you out of your misery?”
― Paul Cude, Bentwhistle the Dragon in a Threat from the Past

“I think love is stronger than habits or circumstances. I think it is possible to keep yourself for someone for a long time and still remember why you were waiting when she comes at last.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

“Just remember who you are... The world will try to change you into someone else. Don't let them. That's the best advice anyone can give you.”
― Cinda Williams Chima, The Warrior Heir

“Death is lighter than a feather. Duty, heavier than a mountain.”
― Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World

“As you enter, you pray to leave. As you leave, you pray to never return.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Do not be silent. Raise your voice. Be a light in the dark.”
― Kalynn Bayron, Cinderella Is Dead

“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.”
― George R.R. Martin

“The sun does not abandon the moon to darkness.”
― Brian A. McBride, Dominion

“It's not the answer you wanted to hear," Pha said.
"It's the truth," Katrina said stepping onto the walk leading to the back door. "The truth's better than hearing nothing.”
― Andrea Luhman, Missing Wings

“It will pain me to see you two make fools of yourselves trying to avoid one another."
"I barely see him, I won't look foolish."
Valgu looked unconvinced.
"The times I do see him, I can use one of your aloof expressions that I've been practicing."
"Good idea, he'll never see through that."
"I'm not going to cry openly, or sit around pining for him. I'll pretend it doesn't hurt, until it really doesn't. I know how to do that.”
― Andrea Luhman, Missing Wings

“There's more to life than just surviving . . . but . . . sometimes just surviving is all you get”
― Charles de Lint, The Onion Girl

“Usually, she considered Valgu a solid judge of character. She found it easy to concede trust to those he would call friend. But this man, and his brazen claim that he had the ability to restore her wings. Tegija seemed task oriented, and had an heir of self important pride, common traits among attractive men. Tegija was in all things the exact opposite of her private nightmare. The one where her brothers failed to retrieve her, and the House sold her off to some nervous indecisive man child.
No one had even bothered to introduce them.”
― Andrea Luhman, Missing Wings

“As it so happens, Mr. Jest, I’ve sometimes come to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast…”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“The problem with a lot of people who read only literary fiction is that they assume fantasy is just books about orcs and goblins and dragons and wizards and bullshit. And to be fair, a lot of fantasy is about that stuff.

The problem with people in fantasy is they believe that literary fiction is just stories about a guy drinking tea and staring out the window at the rain while he thinks about his mother. And the truth is a lot of literary fiction is just that. Like, kind of pointless, angsty, emo, masturbatory bullshit.

However, we should not be judged by our lowest common denominators. And also you should not fall prey to the fallacious thinking that literary fiction is literary and all other genres are genre. Literary fiction is a genre, and I will fight to the death anyone who denies this very self-evident truth.

So, is there a lot of fantasy that is raw shit out there? Absolutely, absolutely, it’s popcorn reading at best. But you can’t deny that a lot of lit fic is also shit. 85% of everything in the world is shit. We judge by the best. And there is some truly excellent fantasy out there. For example, Midsummer Night’s Dream; Hamlet with the ghost; Macbeth, ghosts and witches; I’m also fond of the Odyessey; Most of the Pentateuch in the Old Testament, Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Honestly, fantasy existed before lit fic, and if you deny those roots you’re pruning yourself so closely that you can’t help but wither and die.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

“But this was no ordinary chicken. This chicken was evil manifest.”
― Terry Goodkind, Soul of the Fire

“The pendulum swings between Light and Darkness”
― Brandon Mull

“He tells you to play, so you play. He tells you to curtsy, so you curtsy. He tells what you are meant to do and what you are meant not to do, so you do and you dono do. He tells you not to be angry, so you smile, you turn your eyes down, you are quiet and do exactly as he says in the hopes that this is what he wants, and then one night you realize that you have given him so much of yourself that you are nothing but the curtsy and the smile and the quiet. That you are nothing.”
― Marie Lu, The Kingdom of Back

“You won’t throw up. Unless you’re allergic to lemon root… but let’s not worry about that now.”
― S.G. Blaise, The Last Lumenian

“Does it make you brave to stick your hand in a bear's mouth? Would you do it again just because you didn't die?”
― Robert Jordan, The Dragon Reborn

“But I was wrong. I should have known it wasn't owver, couldn't be over quite easily. No sooner was Xavier out of sight than a little cylinder of paper fell from the top of my locker. As I unrolled it, I knew I'd see black calligraphy crawling across it like a spider. Dread settled around me like a fog as the words burned into my brain:

The Lake of Fire awaits my lady”
― alexandra adornetto, Halo

“He’s never asked my opinion before. I can’t decide whether to feel honored or put on the spot. Maybe a bit of both.”
― S.G. Blaise, The Last Lumenian

“There had been that battle over the awful sign the city put up near his house when he was about seven years old, the one that read “Slow Children Playing”. He was so proud of his mom when she called the city government to complain about it and then appealed to the city council. “Why don’t you put up signs saying ‘Smart Children Playing’ on other streets instead of picking on kids like mine?”
― Steve Bates, Back To You

“It’s not my fault your beauty makes it difficult for me to focus.”
― S.G. Blaise, The Last Lumenian

“Sir, what’s wrong?”
“I just lost my wife.”
“Bummer. I’ve got a couple of minutes. I’ll be glad to help you look for her.”
― Steve Bates, Back To You

“You fill my soul with hope and love.
Together, we will remain through the heavens above.
One soul, together. For always and forever…”
― A.R. Von, Lady's Destiny