We're none of us quite so sure of our place in the world that we can't be rocked off our feet by bad times. It's the getting back up again that counts. Not that you fall, but getting back up again counts for more in the long run.

I try to use all of my senses when describing a setting, and try to think of everything that would impact a character in any given scene.

If it is stupid but it works, it isn't stupid. (a Shin'a'in saying)

Yeah, well, that's what you said the last time it did this, and it was doing it that time too,' Tiercel said waspishly. Clear as mud,' Harrier muttered.

Inexperience can be overcome, ignorance can be enlightened, but prejudice will destroy you.

He isn't stupid, but his interests are so narrow I doubt I could slip a sheet of paper in between them

I think I know why you never married, Sarah." "Well, and I reckoned if I wanted something that'd come and go as he pleased, take me for granted, and ignore me when he chose, I'd get a cat. And if I wanted something I'd always have to be picking up after, getting into trouble, but slavishly devoted, I'd get a dog.