In this world, where we find ourselves, we need compassion more than anything, I think, or we are all alone.

Men made wagers with their judgment, their allegiances, their resources.

It can be hard to write a skillfully entertaining fiction, but a great book wants to be more, and wants more from us.

Unless the perfidious wolves have the temerity to disobey the High King's plans, we should meet Shalhassan's forces by the Latham in mid-wood with the wolves between us. If they aren't,' Diarmuid concluded, 'we blame anyone and everything except the plan.

One didn't stop to talk with creatures from one's nightmares.

One man sees a riselka: his life forks there. Two men see a riselka: one of them shall die. Three men see a riselka: one is blessed, one forks, one shall die.

Lazy poets try to elicit a reader's response with words designed to tug at the heart.