There are seasons of our lives when nothing seems to be happening, when no smoke betrays a burned town or homestead and few tears are shed for the newly dead. I have learned not to trust those times, because if the world is at peace then it means someone is planning war.

Because there could not be peace, not while two tribes shared one land. One tribe must win. Even the nailed god cannot change that truth. And I was a warrior, and in a world at war the warrior must be cruel.

Book tours and research provide a lot of travel - too much, I sometimes think, but we do take vacations.

I'm fortunate that the books sell, but even more fortunate to live in Chatham, to be very happily married and to have, on the whole, a fairly clear conscience.

The existence of tricks does not imply the absence of magic.

Life is a jest of the Gods and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh… or else you'll weep yourself to death.

At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.