The world needed more fireworks- especially now that there was going to be a shortage of beautiful, useless things.

As one does a bear riding a bicycle. One sees it so rarely. (Spoken by Volger, on Deryn)

Let others wage war. You, lucky Austria, shall marry.

I used to be a pre-industrial writer: thousands of words in a spurt and then a few days off. But as I get older, I've switched to a mode best described as 'slow and steady wins the race.' Basically, I write during the same four hours every day, after breakfast and the all-important coffee, generally in the same room and wearing the same pajamas.

You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.

She looked at David closely, and the feeling was still there. She could see that his forehead was too high, that a small scar cut a white stroke through his eyebrow. And his smile was pretty crooked, really. But it was as if something had changed inside Tally's head, something that had turned his face pretty to her.

In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly.