Humanity does not ask to be happy.It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, and then happiness as we can manage it... Take what pleasure you can in the interstices of your work, , but your work is first, learning first, winning is everything because without it there is nothing.

Come in, Bean. Come in Julian Delphiki, longed-for child of good and loving parents. Come in, kidnapped child, hostage of fate. Come and talk to the Fates, who are playing such clever little games with your life.

If you lay a hand on me I'll ram your testicles so far up inside your abdomen it'll take a heart surgeon to get them out.

The only teacher that's worth anything to you is your enemy.

Where loyalty bound creatures together, they became something larger, something new and whole and inexplicable.

The future is a hundred thousand threads, but the past is a fabric that can never be rewoven.

If you listen very carefully, you can hear the good fairy come in the night and leave our assignment for tomorrow.