Hannah > Hannah's Quotes

“The truth is, everyone likes to look down on someone. If your favorites are all avant-garde writers who throw in Sanskrit and German, you can look down on everyone. If your favorites are all Oprah Book Club books, you can at least look down on mystery readers. Mystery readers have sci-fi readers. Sci-fi can look down on fantasy. And yes, fantasy readers have their own snobbishness. I’ll bet this, though: in a hundred years, people will be writing a lot more dissertations on Harry Potter than on John Updike. Look, Charles Dickens wrote popular fiction. Shakespeare wrote popular fiction—until he wrote his sonnets, desperate to show the literati of his day that he was real artist. Edgar Allan Poe tied himself in knots because no one realized he was a genius. The core of the problem is how we want to define “literature”. The Latin root simply means “letters”. Those letters are either delivered—they connect with an audience—or they don’t. For some, that audience is a few thousand college professors and some critics. For others, its twenty million women desperate for romance in their lives. Those connections happen because the books successfully communicate something real about the human experience. Sure, there are trashy books that do really well, but that’s because there are trashy facets of humanity. What people value in their books—and thus what they count as literature—really tells you more about them than it does about the book.”
― Brent weeks

“Why is it, my shadow-striding friend, that we don't fear dreams? We lose consciousness, lose control, things happen with no apparent logic and abiding by no apparent rules.... We don't fear dreams, but we do fear madness, and death terrifies us.”
― Brent Weeks, Shadow's Edge

“..because the only kind of love I have to offer is stupid and blind and so deep and powerful that I feel like I'm cracking just to hold it in.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“Assassination is an art, milord. And I am the city's most accomplished artist.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“Elene gasped and sat up. "Kylar Thaddeus Stern!"
Kylar giggled. "Thaddeus? That's a good one. I knew a Thaddeus once."
"So did I. He was a blind idiot."
"Really?" Kylar said, his eyes dancing. "The one I knew was famous for his gigantic-"
"Kylar!" Elene interrupted, motioning toward Uly.
"His gigantic what?" Uly asked.
"Now you did it." Elene said, "His gigantic what, Kyler?"
"Feet. And you know what they say about big feet." He winked lasciviously at Elene.
"What?" Uly asked.
"Big Shoes," Kylar said.”
― Brent Weeks, Shadow's Edge

“king: "You're...you're shit! You shitting, shitting shit!"
"Your Majesty," Durzo said gravely. "A man of your stature's cursing vocabulary ought to extend beyond a tedious reiteration of the excreta that fills the void between his ears.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“I regretted that I hadn't turned myself into the kind of man that you could be with. That it wouldn't be just for me to be with you, even if you wanted me. Our lives started in the same shit hole, Elene, but somehow you've turned into you, and I've turned into this. I don't like what I've done. I don't like who I've become. You don't deserve a fairy tale? I don't deserve another chance, but I'm asking you for one. You're afraid that love is too risky? I've seen what happens when you don't risk it. [...] I'm willing to risk it to see the world through your eyes.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“My question is, do you believe in an evil possessed of its own purity? or does every act intend some good?...”
― Brent Weeks, Shadow's Edge

“A few months ago you assassinated a man who called himself a god; now you're going after a goddess in truth. Unless you can figure out a way to kill continents, after this you're going to have to retire.”
― Brent Weeks, Beyond the Shadows

“You will find no answers here, just choices.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“A wet boy has a deader, an assassin has a target, because assassins sometimes miss.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“Sometimes a seer could be a pain in the ass? Try always.”
― Brent Weeks

“Dad, one of my first memories is of sharing my worry with you about the space shuttle poking holes in the atmosphere and letting out all of Earth's air.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“It had better be. It doesn't do much when it's soft.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“The truth was, Azoth hated Azoth. Azoth was a coward, passive, weak, afraid, disloyal. Azoth had hesitated. Master Blint didn’t know it, but the poisons on the needle had killed Azoth. He was Kylar now, and Kylar would be everything Azoth hadn’t dared to be.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“If I tell you a secret can you keep it quiet?
“Well, I can. I’m not so sure about Doll Girl.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“There was a nice dilemma.
How does one interject into a polite conversation,
"By the way, in case you're ever interested, I do have a penise."?”
― Brent Weeks, Beyond the Shadows

“Are you?" I said. "Gay, I mean?"

-

I hoped he wasn't offended by my asking, but after everything that had happened, I really wanted to know.

"No," he said. "I thought I was for about a w-w-week once. But now I know I'm not."

If there was ever an answer that sounded like the truth, that was it.”
― Brent Hartinger, Geography Club

“The duke sounded like he was trying to convince himself. “Have you ever done this before?”
“Set up someone by pretending to be someone else? Sure. Pretended to get killed? Not so much.”
― Brent Weeks, Shadow's Edge

“erah Graesin had a silky, low voice. It was reputed to be sexy, but then, everything about Terah Graesin was supposed to be sexy. Kylar didn’t see it. Oh, she was pretty. She had a wide mouth, full lips, and the kind of figure that was unattainable for the majority of noblewomen who spent their days doing nothing more strenuous than issuing orders to the servants. Maybe it was that she was a little too self-consciously good-looking. She wore lots of makeup—expertly applied and subtle, but lots—and had tweezed her eyebrows down to tiny lines. The truth was, she held herself like he ought to admire her, and it pissed him off. What pissed him off more was that to look her in the eye with his disguise, he had to stare straight at her admittedly perky breasts. Dammit, why were breasts so intriguing?”
― Brent Weeks, Shadow's Edge

“DON'T TOUCH MY HAIR!' she yelled.”
― Brent Weeks, Shadow's Edge

“I oh wha ih eenz, idj," Vi said, though it was a lie.”
― Brent Weeks, Shadow's Edge

“Words were another sword for the man who wielded them well.”
― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows

“If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.”
― Francois Mauriac

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

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

“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.”
― Stephen King, Storm of the Century

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”
― Stephen King

“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. … The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”
― Stephen King

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft