Caffeine helps a lot. That and a certain amount of isolation.

I'm not implying that fantasy is for kids. I'm saying that more and more people are finally realizing that there's more to fantasy stories than elves and wizards and goblin armies.

The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.

My bad luck got tangled up with my bad decisions, and I'm paying for it.

If I'd been whoring before class and waved a corset at him, no one would have thought twice about it!

Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear.

I've got a solid grounding in history, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, etc etc. That means I actually have a good idea about how societies change and evolve. I know how a lot of them have actually functioned through the years. I can put together a culture that's cool and different, while still being logically consistent, so that it feels real. So many fantasy worlds are either implausible, cookie-cutter, or both. Mine aren't.