“My eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckle; the rest is subject to change without notice.”

“The tears I feel todayI'll wait to shed tomorrow.Though I'll not sleep this nightNor find surcease from sorrow.My eyes must keep their sight:I dare not be tear-blinded.I must be free to talkNot choked with grief, clear-minded.My mouth cannot betrayThe anguish that I know.Yes, I'll keep my tears til later:But my grief will never go.”

“Look around you, Lessa of Pern, look around the Weyr with unveiled eyes. Old and hallowed is the Weyr? Yes, but shabby and worn – and disregarded. Yes, you were elated to sit in the Weyrwoman’s great chair at the Council Table, but the padding is thin and the fabric dusty. Humbled to think your hands rest where Moreta’s and Torene’s had rested? Well, the stone is ingrained with dirt and needs a good scrubbing. And your rump may rest where theirs did – but that’s not where you have your brains.”

“My nightly craft is winged in white, a dragon of night dark sea.Swift born, dream bound and rudderless, her captain and crew are me.We've sailed a hundred sleeping tides where no seaman's ever beenAnd only my white-winged craft and I know the wonders we have seen.”

“Exchange information, learn to speak sensibly about any subject, learn to express your thoughts, accept new ones, examine them, analyze. Think objectively. Think toward the future.”

“Don't leave me alone!A cry in the night,Of anguish heart-stiking,Of soul-killing fright.Live for my livingOr else I must dieDon't leave me alone.A world heard that cry.”

“Rider to your mate be trueFollow heart in deed and doAll the best your strength can findSo you will rest in heart and mind”