Genuinely social people never ceased to amaze him. Their brains seemed to generate an inexhaustible fund of things to say, naturally, with no effort, out of nothing at all.

By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself should be doing, and he wasn't doing it.

Until now, I've been a kind of binge-writer - I'll carve out five or six hours on a weekend day and make a large container of espresso and just bang out a lot of words.

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

Don't take anyone's writing advice too seriously.

The danger would be going back, or staying still. The only way out was through. The past was ruins, but the present was still in play.

Everybody wanted to be the hero of their own story. Nobody wanted to be comic relief.