All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool.

Most people seem to take pleasure in feeling superior to someone. I'm not like that, which pleases me because it makes me feel superior.

Always speak politely to an enraged Dragon.

It's just that no one wants to be the one being rescued, we all want to do the rescuing.

That's what does it-- that moment where you think you're lost, and then discover that you're not, that you've never really left. There's something that happens in that incredible tiny no-time, and that something is like the revelation of learning.

True heroics must be carefully planned - and strenuously avoided.

The novel should be understood as a structure built to accommodate the greatest possible amount of cool stuff.