Every writer making a secondary world wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it.
J. R. R. TolkienFar, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.
J. R. R. TolkienI wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!
J. R. R. TolkienIt was an evil doom that set her in his path. For she is a fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing straight and proud, shapely as a lily and yet knew that it was hard, as if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel.
J. R. R. Tolkien