There's a special gut-check moment the first time you write a scene in which somebody casts a spell.

I have no doubt there are magician psychopaths, and magician serial killers. I doubt Brakebills admissions is very good at screening for those.

Read everything. If you haven't read everything, you'll never be able to write anything.

A big silvery janitor. Penny, this can’t be how the universe works.” “In the Order we call it ‘inverse profundity.’ We’ve observed it in any number of cases. The deeper you go into the cosmic mysteries, the less interesting everything gets.

For just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or you're going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever.

You don’t learn about yourself by being alone, you learn about yourself from other people.

It's a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you're supposed to like it.