It's always better to attack than to defend," Coram had told her when they talked about fencing late at night. "Always. Ye don't win with defense--ye only hold the other feller off, or wear him down. Attack and have done with it!

With each book, in each place, I have to keep an ongoing map as I write because otherwise I don't know where I am.

free time is an illusion. It's what you get when you die and the gods reward you for a life spent working from dawn until midnight.

I told Ersken, "Lately it's been like living on the knife's edge, never knowing which side I'll fall off on" Ersken clapped me on the shoulder as we stepped into the street. "Cheer up, Beka. Maybe you were going to fall off that razor's edge before, but not today," he said, as good humored as always. "Today we're doing to jump.

Horses are calmer people. They also don't throw things at cats.

Sadly for my wedding plans, I learned that Nestor is a bardash. I envy the men who enjoy his favors. He has always treated me with friendship which I now value more than my old romantic feelings.

I believe that we haven't begun to understand the many forces that bind the physical world, any more than we understand our own minds and what they're capable of.