Lev Grossman Quotes

She was dipping a toe in the pool of bad behavior in finding the temperature was just right. It was fun being a problem. Julia had been very very good for a very long time, and the funny thing about that was, if you’re too good too much of the time, people start to forget about you. You’re not a problem, so people can strike you off their list of things to worry about. Nobody makes a fuss over you. They make a fuss over the bad girls.

Though the funny thing about never being asked for anything is that after a while you start to feel like maybe you don’t have anything worth giving.

I have a hard time believing that the history of the universe is being written by a talking rabbit," Eliot said. "Though that would explain a lot.

Nobody can be touched by that much power without being corrupted.

The irony was quite comprehensively hideous.

In different ways they had both discovered the same truth: that to live out childhood fantasies as a grown-up was to court and wed and bed disaster.

To be honest, Quentin felt superior to anybody who still messed around with magic. They could delude themselves if they liked, those self-indulgent magical mandarins, but he’d outgrown that stuff. He wasn’t a magician anymore, he was a man, and a man took responsibility for his actions.

If he couldn’t go back, he would just have to do things differently going forward. He felt how infinitely safer and more sound this attitude was. The trick was just not wanting anything. That was power. That was courage: the courage not to love anyone or hope for anything.
The funny thing about it was how easy everything got, when nothing mattered.

Sure, you can live out your dreams, but it’ll only turn you into a monster.

It's a funny thing about the old gods," he said. "You think that just because they're old they must be difficult to kill. But when the fighting starts, they go down just like anybody else. They aren't stronger, they're just older.

Well, but why would You create something that had the power to hurt You? Or any of Your creatures? Why don't You help us? Do You have any idea how much we hurt? How much we suffer?"
A stern glance. "I know all things, daughter."
"Well, okay, then know this." Janet put her hands on her hips. She had struck an unexpected vein of bitterness in herself, and it was running away with her. "We human beings are unhappy all the time. We hate ourselves and we hate each other and sometimes we wish You of Whoever had never created us or this shit-ass world or any other shit-ass world. Do You realize that? So next time You might think about not doing such a half-assed job.

The power to create order is one thing. The power to destroy is another. Always they are in balance. But it is easier to destroy than to create, and there are those whose nature it is to love destruction.

Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or you're going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever."
"You can't just decide to be happy."
"No, you can't. But you can sure as hell decide to be miserable. Is that what you want?

We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler.

Anyway, the mood he was in, Quentin was willing to take any position on any subject with anybody if it meant he could pick a fight.