Fantasy is, at its best, the purest access to storytelling that we have. It universalizes a tale, it evokes wonder and timeless narrative power, it touches upon inner journeys, it illuminates our collective and individual pasts, throws a focus beam on the present day, and presages the dangers and promises of the future.
Guy Gavriel KayThe world could bring you poison in a jewelled cup, or surprising gifts. Sometimes you didn't know which of them it was.
Guy Gavriel KayMy youngest brother had a wonderful schtick from some time in high school, through to graduating medicine. He had a card in his wallet that read, โIf I am found with amnesia, please give me the following books to read โฆโ And it listed half a dozen books where he longed to recapture that first glorious sense of needing to find out โwhat happens nextโ โฆ the feeling that keeps you up half the night. The feeling that comes before the plotโs been learned.
Guy Gavriel KayThere was some sadness in how that could happen, Tai thought: falling out of love with something that had shaped you. Or even people who had? But if you didn't change at least a little, where were the passages of a life? Didn't learning, changing, sometimes mean letting go of what had once been seen as true?
Guy Gavriel Kay