Tad Williams Quotes

Do you get tired, singing?" she asked.
Gan Itai laughed quietly. "Does a mother grow tired raising her children? Of course, but it is what I do.

She realized now that she knew little about people outside the courts of Nabban and Erkynland, although she had always thought herself a shrewd judge of humanity. However, it was a larger and much more complicated world on the other side of the castle walls than she had ever suspected.

Only the mercenaries were here by choice. To Simon, the minds of men who would come to this of their own will were suddenly as incomprehensible as the thoughts of spiders or lizards—less so, even, for the small creatures of the earth almost always fled from danger. These were madmen, Simon realized, and that was the direst problem of the world: that madmen should be strong and unafraid, so that they could force their will on the weak and peace-loving. If God allowed such madness to be, Simon could not help thinking, then He was an old God who had lost His grip.

Now, boy, now..." he said bewilderedly, "what is all this talk of glory? Have you caught the sickness, too? Curse me for a blind beggar, I should have seen. This fever has cankered even your simple heart, hasn't it, Simon? I'm sorry. It takes a strong will or practiced eye to see through the glitter to the rotten core.

Thank you for your news, Princess. It is none of it happy, but only a fool desires cheerful ignorance and I try not to be a fool. That is my heaviest burden.

We trolls say: “Make Philosophy your evening guest, but do not let her stay the night.”

He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.

Things are not always as old songs tell them to be—especially when it is concerning dragons.

She knew that life was but a long struggle against disorder, and that disorder was the inevitable winner.

I shall endeavor to turn dross to purest Metal Absolute: in short, to teach you something.

Simple answers to life’s questioning. That would be a magic beyond any I have ever been seeing.

Strangely, although the world is already full of fearful things, mortals seems always to hunt for new worries.

It was easy to hate if he did not think, Simon discovered.

Everyone at the Hayholt had seemed obsessed with the empty ritual of power, something Miriamele had lived with for so long that it held no interest for her. It was like watching a confusing game played by bad-tempered children.

You can never tell when princes will get squinty on you. You can never tell when they might suddenly feel their blood and go all royal.