Being a writer can be isolating. It's good to be among readers and booksellers.

The real problem with being around James was that he was always the hero. And what did that make you? Either the sidekick or the villain.

Being brave was easy when you would rather die than give up.

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.

Becoming an author changes your attitude too. Once you see where books come from, and how they're made, they never seem quite as sacred again.

You didn’t get the quest you wanted, you got the one you could do.

He wasn't surprised. He was used to this anticlimactic feeling, where by the time you've done all the work to get something you don't even want it anymore.