There is no doubt that being human is incredibly difficult and cannot be mastered in one lifetime.

"Multiple exclamation marks," he went on, shaking his head, "are a sure sign of a diseased mind."

You take a bunch of people who don't seem any different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem.

You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape – the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes – we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.

I must confess the activities of the UK governments for the past couple of years have been watched with frank admiration and amazement by Lord Vetinari. Outright theft as a policy had never occurred to him.

Most modern fantasy just rearranges the furniture in Tolkien's attic.

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.