I'm not certain that I draw from any one culture more than others. Many myths and legends of many different cultures are really the same story when you get to the heart of it. They are often cultural cautionary tales about how we should behave and how we should live.

The people seemed nearly ostentatious about minding their own business.

Always something new, always something I didn't expect, and sometimes it isn't horrible.

Some men […] choose to seek greatness, while others are forced to it. It is always better to choose than to be forced. A man who is forced is never completely his own master. He must dance on the strings of those who forced him.

Perrin, my father says a general can take care of the living or weep for the dead, but he cannot do both.

Think if you want to stay alive. Fear will kill you if you don't control it.

The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.