Dean F. Wilson > Quotes

“Dynamite is loyal to the one who lights the fuse.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Skyshaker

“When writing, there are some scenes that are emotionally overwhelming. They completely overcome the author, and only when they do this can they cause a similar reaction in the reader.

Through this, the author gets to experience multiple lives. If a character's life flashes before their eyes, it flashes before the author's eyes too, and he or she remembers it as his or her own.

With reading, we get to live other lives vicariously, and this is doubly so with writing. It is like a lucid dream, where we guide the outcome. In this, we don't merely write *about* a character -- we momentarily *become* them, and walk as they walk, think as they think, and do as they do. When we return to our own life, we might return a little shaken, likely a little stronger, hopefully a little wiser.

What is certain is that we return better, because experiencing the lives of others makes us understand their aims and dreams, their fears and foils, the challenges and difficulties, and joys and triumphs, that they face. It helps us grow and empathise, and see all the little pictures that make up the bigger one we see from the omniscience of the narrator.”
― Dean F. Wilson

“That was the trouble with explaining with words. If you explained with gunpowder, people listened.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Dustrunner

“Nox didn’t say a word. He waited, counting the seconds in his mind. Sometimes you counted bullets and sometimes you counted time. Either one could kill you.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Rustkiller

“The silence just allowed the echoes of the question to play out in Nox’s mind, reminding him of his own unwinnable war against the never-ending tide of conmen and criminals. He was trying to clean up these parts, but every time he rubbed away a stain, he found another layer of dirt beneath. So, you could give up—or you could keep on scrubbing.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Coilhunter

“His eyes were like galaxies, and everyone could get lost in them. How many stars flickered there, no one knew, but every time he glanced upon someone, a new star ignited, a new star was caught in the gravity of his stare.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Worldwaker

“There are always periodic opportunities to give up, while every single moment is an opportunity to persevere.”
― Dean F. Wilson

“Often you cannot wait for inspiration—it needs to be sought out.”
― Dean F. Wilson

“The thought had crossed my mind, that in order to save this world from Hell, I might have to become the Devil.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Skyshaker

“Fear is leaden. Courage is golden. Let go of the weight of the world, and you will fly.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Worldwaker

“Stories serve multiple purposes. At a basic level they are great entertainment, which is essential for living a happy and healthy life, but on a deeper level stories help us explore issues that are otherwise difficult to address. On one hand a good book helps us escape our troubles, and on the other hand it can help us face up to those troubles by bringing real issues to the fore, often in a more manageable way, since the problems are experienced vicariously through the eyes of another.”
― Dean F. Wilson

“Sometimes all the players get a bad hand. You just have to be determined enough to see the game through.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Skyshaker

“Science fiction tells us truths that we mightn't listen to any other way.”
― Dean F. Wilson

“your biggest enemy is yourself, your creation of barriers, your destruction of your freedom.” They”
― Dean F. Wilson, The Call of Agon

“When in the house of the enemy, the best rooms are always the ones with the lights out.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Hopebreaker

“He fell, toppling forward into the sand. He hadn't even fully realised he'd lost his balance until the ground told him. And the ground didn't whisper.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Dustrunner

“It was as much a battle of wits and words as it was of mitts and swords.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Skyshaker

“I consider fantasy the heir of mythology, addressing a real human need to seek out answers to life’s many mysteries. It is a genre that can tell an entertaining and enthralling story on the surface, and yet deliver a potent message underneath, where everything becomes a symbol of something greater.”
― Dean F. Wilson

“As the darkness deepened, the sky was streaked with veins of red, the last low beats of a dying sun. Against this scarlet canopy the hulk of the Rust Road's twin peaks stood tall, mountains of metal, unnaturally jagged. Their sharp pinnacles pierced the sky, and Jacob could not help but wonder if that explained the blood there.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Worldwaker

“Some men claimed that saying things made them true. Well, many men who said they were rich still died poor. Nox said he was cool, but that sun showed him he was a liar.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Dustrunner

“Then everything turned brilliant white for a second, and Jacob's eyes were stunned. The shock faded, but then another flash came, dulled by the darkness of the fog. Blades of lightning broke through the sea of smoke, accompanied by the violent clap of thunder, as if an angry god saw the storm devour them, and burst out into wild applause.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Worldwaker

“His father used to tell him that you can't eat principles. And no, you couldn't. But you could live by them.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Dustrunner

“We read to escape, to embrace, to challenge, and to understand. Reading enages our intellect, but also our empathy, and we are all the better for it.”
― Dean F. Wilson

“Terror had them all for a moment, and it ravaged them, and when it was finished, shock had its way with them, and left them cold and helpless.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Hopebreaker

“And it was to the bottom that the vessel now plunged, into the waters that were blacker than any black on land, into a gloom that was more consuming than the deepest night. Were the crew not focused on their frenzied work to stop the steep descent, they might've glanced out one of the many round windows, and they might've thought that they were looking into the black iris of an evil creature—and they might've been right.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Lifemaker

“They began their climb, already weary, and the sun tried to steal whatever strength they had left. It was another god, a forgotten god, who gave a daily reminder, and was forgotten again each night.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Worldwaker

“He had no big plan for this. He had not prepared for the day when he would be fighting his own work. He had not plotted against his own plots.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Worldwaker

“The desert mocked the map-makers.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Hopebreaker

“All the while, that seemingly sympathetic sun was growing a little fiercer, smiling a little broader. Sometimes the land didn't have to get you. You got yourself.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Rustkiller

“They journeyed on for a bit, then set up camp and cooked beans over a small fire. The poor man's meat. Drifter food. Some said beans'd get you across the desert and back. Dead men said a lot of things.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Dustrunner