What did you put in the fire?" Kaladin said. "To make that special smoke?" "Nothing. It was just and ordinary fire." "But, I saw-" "What you saw belongs to you. A story doesn't live until it is imagined in someone's mind." "What does the story mean, then?" "It means what you want it to mean," Hoid said. "The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think , but to give you questions to think upon. Too often, we forget that.
Brandon SandersonI am a writer who works from an outline. What I generally do when I build an outline is I find focal, important scenes, and I build them in my head and I don't write them yet, but I build towards them.
Brandon SandersonHowever a man who was honest and clever was always, ALWAYS more difficult to scam than someone who was both dishonest and clever. Sincerity. It was so difficult , by definition, to fake.
Brandon SandersonSo,โ Marasi said, โyou traded a dead manโs scarf for another dead manโs gun. Butโฆthe gun itself belonged to someone dead, so by the same logicโโ โDonโt try,โ Waxillium said. โLogic doesnโt work on Wayne.โ โI bought a ward against it off a traveling fortune-teller,โ Wayne explained. โIt lets me add two โnโ two and get a pickle.
Brandon SandersonSomebody has to start. Somebody has to step forward and do what is right, because it is right.
Brandon SandersonWhy did they believe? Because they saw miracles. Things one man took as chance, a man of faith took as a sign. A loved one recovering from disease, a fortunate business deal, a chance meeting with a long lost friend. It wasn't the grand doctrines or the sweeping ideals that seemed to make believers out of men. It was the simple magic in the world around them.
Brandon SandersonKatar," Raoden called. Yes, My Lord?" Do you know what it is? The secret, I mean?" Kahar smiled. "I havent't been hungry in days, my lord. It is the most amazing feeling in the world-I don't evern notice the pain anymore." Raoden nodded, and Kahar left. The man had come looking for a magical solution to his woes, but he had found an answer much more simple. Pain lost its power when other things became more importan. Kahar didn't need a potion or an Aon to save him-he just needed something to do.
Brandon Sanderson