Are you a person—with volition and maybe some stubbornness and at least the capacity if not the actual determination to do something surprising—or are you a tool? A tool just serves its user. It’s only as good as the skill of its user, and it’s not good for anything else. So if you want to accomplish something special—something more than you can do for yourself—you can’t use a tool. You have to use a person and hope the surprises will work in your favor. You have to use something that’s free to not be what you had in mind.

He who waits for the sword to fall upon his neck will surely lose his head.

We didn't make the world. All we have to do is live in it.

I had no intention of pursuing either the characters or the setting further.

There is no life which does not possess its own importance, no life which may not be touched by greatness at any time -- Yes, be touched by greatness and have a hand in it. (from The Mirror of Her Dreams)

The heart cherishes secrets not worth the telling

Part of him wanted to weep... but his purpose was rigid within him. He felt he could not bend to gentleness without breaking.