“Soon the sky began to turn a starlit lavender. Many looked up and admired it, for it was often said that when you are no longer moved by the last stages of dusk in the Mexican desert, it is time to shake the hand of your Maker.”

“…you know if you look close at the black of a tiger’s whisker, it turns out it isn’t black at all, but a swirl of violet and deep blue and kelp green.”

“When you go through the hardest of times, the people that come to your aid are the ones that you will carry with you forever. The people that don’t, no matter how close you perceived them to be, should not be part of your inner circle. Pain and hardships help highlight who is, who has, and who will always be there for you throughout the roller coaster of life.”

“In fact, some people use humour so habitually that it is hard for them to remain serious for any length of time.”

“And his paths shall be many, and who shall know his name, for he shall be beorn among us many times, in many guises, as he has been and ever will be, time without end. His coming shall be like the sharp edge of the plow, turning our lives in furrows form out of the places where we lie in our silence. The breaker of binds; the forger of chains. The maker of futures; the unshaper of destiny. -from Commentaries on the Prophecies of the Dragon, by Jurith Dorine, Right Hand to the Queen of Almoren, 742 AB, the Third Age”

“She didn't want to look ahead to the days and the months and the years with him. Here, now, in this room, it was all right, but later? Again, time couldn't stop. And she saw at last that time only stopped when you were dead...Time was always moving and nothing could stay the same, everything was always changing, for better or for worse. And you had to change with time, with the seasons and the years, or you would be dead too, although your heart would continue to beat.”

“Are you going to shake my hand,or am I going to rip your heart out?”