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.
Tamora PierceI well knew the rules to follow with our training Dogs: Speak when you're spoken to. Keep out of the way. Obey all orders. Get killed on your own time.
Tamora PierceIf Cape wasn't your last name, what was your real one?" I asked, deathly curious now. "Ahhhh," he complained. "Pincas Huckleburr.
Tamora PierceThe fantasy that appeals most to people is the kind that's rooted thoroughly in somebody looking around a corner and thinking, 'What if I wandered into this writer's people here?' If you've done your job and made your people and your settings well enough, that adds an extra dimension that you can't buy.
Tamora PierceI 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.
Tamora PierceI don't write from dreams because I don't remember mine, but I had a fragment of an image left about twins, whose father was telling them how their lives were going to go for the next eight years. I wrote a scene about that, and then another and then another and then another, and after five months I had 732 pages.
Tamora PierceAlanna didn't approve of lying, but in a pinch a lie was sometimes better than the truth.
Tamora PierceShe's all over us like maggots on garbage, just because I interfered with one pickpocket yesterday.
Tamora PierceBriar: "They never tell you some things. They tell you mages have wonderful power and they learn all kinds of secrets. Nobody ever mentions that some secrets you don't ever want to learn." Rosethorn: "All you can do is learn good to balance the bad. Learn and do all the good within your reach. Then, if you wake in a sweat, you have something to set against the dream.
Tamora PierceExcuse me," she said politely. "But you can't have him. Not yet. He's going to come back with me.
Tamora PierceI truly love our Code of Chivalry. We are taught that noblemen must take everything and say nothing. Noblemen must stand alone. Well, we're men, and men aren't born to stand alone.
Tamora PierceNestor beckoned to me and I dismounted with care.I handed the reins to the boy with thanks. I do not wish to see that hard-charging bag of bones again, unless it is in my soup.
Tamora PierceDon't die on me," she whispered when the clock struck midnight and he still had not moved. "It's only a little shoulder wound. Goddess, George-don't die on me." His eyes flickered open and he smiled. "I didn't know you cared," he whispered. "And why insult me? I won't die for a wee nick like this; I've had worse in my day." Alanna wiped her wet cheeks. "Of course I care, you unprincipled pickpocket!" she whispered. "Of course I care.
Tamora PierceIf you aren't having fun, if you aren't anxious to find out what happens next as you write, then not only will you run out of steam on the story, but you won't be able to entertain anyone else, either.
Tamora PierceMost humans think the appearance of quiet is quiet. They do not see that sometimes the enemy is as quiet as the serpent. Only when it has stolen all of their eggs will they know bad walks in the quiet as well as the noisy.
Tamora PierceDaja: "He and Rosethorn work together? They hate each other." Lark: "I didn't say they liked it. - Daja and Lark referring to Rosethorn and Crane's cooperation on finding the cures for new diseases
Tamora PierceThe tall thief rushed down the stairs and grabbed her, swinging her around as he laughed. "And I've been thinkin' you forgot me," he said, placing her on her feet once more. "Just look at you! Tan and fit and wearin' the clothes of a Bazhir-" Alanna looked up into his friendly hazel eyes and broke into tears.
Tamora PierceShe glared at him. "Why are you forever asking hard questions?" He smiled. "Sooner or later you'll have to be able to answer one." Daja shoved him, grinning.
Tamora PierceMilitary folk," Neal said with exaggerated patience, shaking his head. "The only way you know to solve problems is by beating them with a stick.
Tamora PierceIf I say you're a goatherd's son, you say, 'Yes, Lord Ralon.'" Alanna gasped with fury. "I'd as soon kiss a pig! Is that what you've been doing-kissing pigs? Or being kissed?
Tamora PierceIshabal: "If you may correct your vision as you like, why do you wear spectacles?" Tris: "Because I like them. Because I have better things to do with my magic than fixing my vision when ordinary glass will do.
Tamora PierceWhat if custom is wrong? demanded the part of her that believed in the code of chivalry. A knight must set things right.
Tamora PierceHe was overconfidentโ, she told him. โAnd I won so the gods must have thought I was right. Otherwise theyโd have made me lose. You know how trial by combat works.โ โYou won because you were goodโ he corrected her. โI find it hard to believe the gods sit forever about the Divine Realms betting on jousts and trials by combat.
Tamora PierceAnd if they don't believe us, I can give them the ghost eyes, you can go all big and threatening, Farmer can do his cracknob simpleton, and my lady can don her nobleness. We'll do all right.
Tamora PierceWhat trouble have you brought to my doorstep, Beka" she asked. "I don't see where blaming me for things that began months ago will be useful," I replied.
Tamora PierceThere is a saying in the Islands. Beware the women of the warrior class, for all they touch is both decorative and deadly.-Yuki
Tamora PierceDale: "No, no--curse it, Beka, you're the prickliest woman I've ever met!" Goodwin: "No, I am. But she comes very close, I have to say." โ Dale Rowan and Clara Goodwin when Beka didn't want to accept money for being Dale's "luck
Tamora PierceI said I fell down. Ah. The ground bloodied your nose, split yer lip, and punched ye in th' eye, all at once. I said I don't want to talk about it.
Tamora PierceMen don't think and differently from women - they just make more noise about being able to.
Tamora PierceFeelings, she learned, were hard to fight. She treasured his smiles and compliments and tried not to dwell on the fact that he gave this things to his friend Kel. His dreamy-eyed gazes, poems, and fits of passionate melancholy were for Uline. It was hard not to resent the older girl.
Tamora PierceA good friend will help you up when you fall. A best friend will laugh and try to trip you again. - I'm not sure
Tamora PierceWouldn't--" Kel began to say, but the words stuck in her mouth. She swallowed and tried again. "Wouldn't it be well, not nice to flirt with somebody you don't want to fall in love with?
Tamora PierceWhy does he speak of them that way?" The crow-man wanted to know. "They are humans, just like he is." "I don't think he sees them as just like him." Ally explained. "He is foolish then," said Nawat. "There are more raka than Bronaus.
Tamora Pierce