“If you love a waist, you waste a love.”

“Shit is another useful word. Also very common. For example, pleasantly surprised? You say 'No shit?' You think someone tells you tales, you scoff 'You're shitting me.' You find something you like very much, you exclaim 'That's good shit!”

“Just write. If you have to make a choice, if you say, 'Oh well, I'm going to put the writing away until my children are grown,' then you don't really want to be a writer. If you want to be a writer, you do your writing... If you don't do it, you probably don't want to be a writer, you just want to have written and be famous—which is very different.”

“A child who can love the oddities of a fantasy book cannot possibly be xenophobic as an adult. What is a different color, a different culture, a different tongue for a child who has already mastered Elvish, respected Puddleglums, or fallen under the spell of dark-skinned Ged?”

“You are a name, not a number. Never forget that name, whatever they tell you here. You will always be Chaya—life—to me.”

“I must fill myself with sorrow if I am to give you what you want.”

“You know how it is: as soon as you decide to forget something, your brain comes to the conclusion that it's the most fascinating thing in the world.”