Kaylin Boyd > Kaylin's Quotes

“Books are portals. Even if the people and events inside are all fictitious, the magic of it all is real.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd, Tell City: A Novel

“Starting a new book is like starting a new adventure, and when starting a new adventure, it would be unwise to think there will not be dragons. We will never know what will be encountered when we set out, but to be brave, we must set out anyway. There will always be dragons, and I wish you luck should they cross your path.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd, Tell City: A Novel

“The places in this book are real places as a reminder that magic can still happen in our world. This is the importance of the contemporary fantasy genre. Mythic tales have always served as the door through which humans and gods interact - safely within a dreamscape.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd, Tell City: A Novel

“Scary stories protect us.

They have since the beginning of story itself. That's what they were made for.
And children, especially, need scary stories. They keep children away dangerous places and dubious people. The old folk stories of nixies kept children away from the edges of dangerous waters. Tales of ghosts to this day keep children away from abandoned, tetanus-filled houses. Stories of the Candy Man keep them from talking to strangers.

If we keep children away from scary stories, we are doing them a disservice. These books warn them against things that busy adults might have failed to mention. Moms and Dads and Schools are often afraid to talk about monsters and boogeymen, because they are afraid of scaring the children. But scary books for don't mind doling out a good scare- that's their job, after all, and they do it better than anyone else.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd

“The only cure for writer's block is writing.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd

“The sunken gray sky seemed to be closing in on the ground. The edges of the world on which they stood crumbled into the abyss. They could hear it fracture around them like glaciers splintering off into the frigid deep.
"What do you three want?" Eros asked with flippant annoyance.
Loki chimed in, "We don't want any of your Girl Scout Cookies…"
Eros closed his eyes and pressed his lips together.
"-unless you have Samoas,” Loki amended.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd, The Netherworlds: Curse of Fate

“He headed home through the streets of New Bedlam. It was the cleanest city in the Cosmos on the outside to disguise the flaws just under the surface. Like a corpse at the viewing, all makeup and formaldehyde. Under the streets were veins of sewers, rank with putrid blood and discarded bones from the nightclubs and luxury apartment buildings.
Eros could feel the bloodlust pouring out of every doorway he passed, and he buttoned up his pea coat and quickened his pace. The desiderium of the city both tempted and disgusted him.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd, The Netherworlds: Curse of Fate

“He breathed in the briny air. In a far less dreamy tone, he asked, “How was Death?”
Loki clicked his tongue. “He says he doesn’t paint.”
“Bullocks.” Eros reached over to the table on his right and took up the fruity yellow drink with an umbrella sticking out of it. He took a sip and said, “He paints.”
― Kaylin Boyd, The Netherworlds: Built On Blood

“Chaos eventually coagulates into some form of order, which people overwork in their hands like clay until it devolves back into utter unmanageable chaos, and somehow they still think they’ve got it under control.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd, The Netherworlds: Curse of Fate

“The Guide says there is an art to flying", said Ford, "or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

“You know," said Arthur, "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“So this is it," said Arthur, "We are going to die."
"Yes," said Ford, "except... no! Wait a minute!" He suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. "What's this switch?" he cried.
"What? Where?" cried Arthur, twisting round.
"No, I was only fooling," said Ford, "we are going to die after all.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“O Deep Thought computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us...." he paused, "The Answer."
"The Answer?" said Deep Thought. "The Answer to what?"
"Life!" urged Fook.
"The Universe!" said Lunkwill.
"Everything!" they said in chorus.
Deep Thought paused for a moment's reflection.
"Tricky," he said finally.
"But can you do it?"
Again, a significant pause.
"Yes," said Deep Thought, "I can do it."
"There is an answer?" said Fook with breathless excitement.
"Yes," said Deep Thought. "Life, the Universe, and Everything. There is an answer. But, I'll have to think about it."
...
Fook glanced impatiently at his watch.
“How long?” he said.
“Seven and a half million years,” said Deep Thought.
Lunkwill and Fook blinked at each other.
“Seven and a half million years...!” they cried in chorus.
“Yes,” declaimed Deep Thought, “I said I’d have to think about it, didn’t I?"

[Seven and a half million years later.... Fook and Lunkwill are long gone, but their descendents continue what they started]

"We are the ones who will hear," said Phouchg, "the answer to the great question of Life....!"
"The Universe...!" said Loonquawl.
"And Everything...!"
"Shhh," said Loonquawl with a slight gesture. "I think Deep Thought is preparing to speak!"
There was a moment's expectant pause while panels slowly came to life on the front of the console. Lights flashed on and off experimentally and settled down into a businesslike pattern. A soft low hum came from the communication channel.

"Good Morning," said Deep Thought at last.
"Er..good morning, O Deep Thought" said Loonquawl nervously, "do you have...er, that is..."
"An Answer for you?" interrupted Deep Thought majestically. "Yes, I have."
The two men shivered with expectancy. Their waiting had not been in vain.
"There really is one?" breathed Phouchg.
"There really is one," confirmed Deep Thought.
"To Everything? To the great Question of Life, the Universe and everything?"
"Yes."
Both of the men had been trained for this moment, their lives had been a preparation for it, they had been selected at birth as those who would witness the answer, but even so they found themselves gasping and squirming like excited children.
"And you're ready to give it to us?" urged Loonsuawl.
"I am."
"Now?"
"Now," said Deep Thought.
They both licked their dry lips.
"Though I don't think," added Deep Thought. "that you're going to like it."
"Doesn't matter!" said Phouchg. "We must know it! Now!"
"Now?" inquired Deep Thought.
"Yes! Now..."
"All right," said the computer, and settled into silence again. The two men fidgeted. The tension was unbearable.
"You're really not going to like it," observed Deep Thought.
"Tell us!"
"All right," said Deep Thought. "The Answer to the Great Question..."
"Yes..!"
"Of Life, the Universe and Everything..." said Deep Thought.
"Yes...!"
"Is..." said Deep Thought, and paused.
"Yes...!"
"Is..."
"Yes...!!!...?"
"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“A cup of tea would restore my normality."

[Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Screenplay]”
― Douglas Adams

“What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water!”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“The first ten million years were the worst," said Marvin, "and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“I like the cover," he said. "Don't Panic. It's the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody's said to me all day.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“You know what a learning experience is? A learning experience is one of those things that says, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

“something almost, but not quite entirely unlike tea”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“The only cure for not being able to write is to write.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd

“Believe in magic. Believe in fate. Believe in gods and coincidence and strange phenomenon. Believe in yourself. Fools make history.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd

“The hardest part about writing, especially writing fiction, is being honest. As writers, it's really easy to use fiction to lie to ourselves. When you do that, the reader will pick up on it and feel it somehow. But when you're honest and you're writing, every word sings.”
― Kaylin R. Boyd

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost