“Lore is my favorite kind of story. Because it's not only historical, it's a lie everyone knows is a lie but tells anyway. I love that. Of course every story I tell is true. Completely true. Completely and utterly at least five-eighths of the way to being true, which is truer than any piece of lore and truer than most truths you'll hear.”

“Your only responsibility as a writer is to be true to the story that has chosen you as its writer.”

“A story is not always a lie," said Tristan. "Some stories are truer than truth." Truer than truth? That sounded like something liars made up to tell people who found them out.”

“There is no form to this story because it is true, or at least as close to true as I have been able to make it.”

“You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say, and afterward you ask, 'Is it true?' and if the answer matters, you've got your answer . . . Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.”

“I realize that nothing is really normal. All it takes to alter normalcy is a death or a birth. Or just some misguided fear, love, or loneliness that never goes away.”

“Lore? Tell me what Sin said about you being tortured wasn't true,'He didn't look at her as he moved toward the bathroom. 'It wasn't true.''You're lying.''You told me to.”