“[We let] the universality of fantasy, of once upon a time, allow escapist fiction to be more than just that - to also bring us home.”

“Reading is a collaboration between the writer and reader. Both parties must keep that in mind when dealing with a work of fiction.”{Guy Gavriel Kay}”

“We are all shaped by where we grow up, though that shaping takes different forms. I don't think there's any doubt that coming of age in Winnipeg both opened my eyes and made me hungry - if I can subvert all claims to be a real writer by mixing metaphors like that.”

“It can be hard to write a skillfully entertaining fiction, but a great book wants to be more, and wants more from us.”

“No man ever truly possesses a woman, anyhow," said Gidas moodily. "He has her body for a time if he's lucky, but only the most fleeting glimpse into her soul." Gidas was a poet, or wanted to be.”

“That felt strange. How sharp a rent a handful of moments made in the fabric of a life.”

“My youngest brother had a wonderful schtick from some time in high school, through to graduating medicine. He had a card in his wallet that read, ‘If I am found with amnesia, please give me the following books to read …’ And it listed half a dozen books where he longed to recapture that first glorious sense of needing to find out ‘what happens next’ … the feeling that keeps you up half the night. The feeling that comes before the plot’s been learned.”

“The privacy of pride.”

“I have been made to realize tonight that there are limits to what I wish to do or see done for any cause.”

“I didn't ask to be made a princess."This time all three of them laugh, although it is gentle enough."Who chooses their fate?" It is the third one, the tallest. "Who asks to be born into the times that are theirs?""Well, who accepts the world only as it comes to them?" she says, too quickly.”

“When I'm all grown up, come what may,I'll build a boat to carry me away”