A magician is strong because he feels pain. He feels the difference between what the world is and what he would make of it. Or what did you think that stuff in your chest was? A magician is strong because he hurts more than others. His wound is his strength.

You're saying the gods don't have free will." "The power to make mistakes," Penny said. "Only we have that. Mortals

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

Book tours are excellent things, and one is lucky to get to go on one, but they have a way of leeching away one's will to live.

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.

The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

I've stayed in houses that were in the country, and in England, but I'm still not sure that I've stayed in an English country house.