Every year the literary press praises dozens if not hundreds of novels to the skies, asserting explicitly or implicitly that these books will probably not be suffering water damage in the basements of their authors' houses 20 years from now. But historically, anyway, that's not the way the novelistic ecology works.

Do you promise to hate my parents as much as I do?" "Oh, absolutely," Quentin said. "Maybe even more.

I have spent many, many hours reading J.K. Rowling's work. I am a known 'Harry Potter' fan.

The problem with growing up is that once you're grown up, the people who aren't grown up aren't fun anymore.

The truth doesn't always make a good story, does it?

I read Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I think will subsequently be recognized as one of the first great novels of the 21st century.

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.