"So what’s the test?" "Ah, that’s the trick of it. It’s not a test. It’s real life." - Lois McMaster Bujold

She used to ask, 'Why did the gods give [my son] to me if they were only going to take him away?' Learned Retaka never had an answer. "No," said Pen slowly, "that's backward. The gods do not give us our children. We give our children to the gods."

The princess-archdivine once quipped to me that our friends are what the gods give us to make up for our families.

From fried witchetty grubs to gold-plated turnips, when you're a writer you never know what's going to appear on your plate next. It keeps a woman alert, it does.