I came from an anxious, overly intense East Coast academic family. That was the way of our tribe.

We have lived too long. The great days are past.

That’s what death did, it treated you like a child, like everything you had ever thought and done and cared about was just a child’s game, to be crumpled up and thrown away when it was over. It didn’t matter. Death didn’t respect you. Death thought you were bullshit, and it wanted to make sure you knew it.

I think every fantasy reader secretly believes they know how magic works.

I've only read three books by Stephen King. When I was 10 I read 'The Long Walk,' one of his pseudonymous Bachman books. In my early 20s, while trapped on a family vacation, I read 'The Dark Half,' which taught me a word I have never forgotten: psychopomp. Now I have read '11/22/63.'

It's time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost.

I never thought about doing a sequel when I was actually writing 'The Magicians.' I only ever considered it a standalone.