“Life can be hard in the real world.”
“Because...because how can I expect the world to be a better place if I ain't gonna try real hard to make it better?”
“There was pain, but there was also joy. It was in the tension between the two that life happened. Imperfect as it was, this world was real. Illusion was no substitute. I'd rather live a hard life of fact than a sweet life of lies.”
“Magic does that. It wastes you away. Once it grips you by the ear, the real world gets quieter and quieter, until you can hardly hear it at all.”
“but it was hard to give the real world much notice when he was this close.”
“The real architect of a life is the hard and almost impossible circumstances one faces.”