Lev Grossman – The Magicians (2009)

“Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there’s nothing else. It’s here, and you’d better decide to enjoy it or you’re going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever.”

“You can’t just decide to be happy.”

“No, you can’t. But you can sure as hell decide to be miserable. Is that what you want? … Because that’s who you are right now.”

On one hand, a satisfying quote. On the other, this is absolutely moronic. You don’t shame someone out of depression.

Lev Grossman – The Magicians (2009)

“…It makes perfect political sense. We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler.”

the guide Fen, of Fillory

Lev Grossman – The Magicians (2009)

To make matters worse, some of the books had actually become migratory.

Robin McKinley – Dragonhaven (2007)

And how I feel, here, in a cavern full of dragons, is that it’s all so interesting. Which maybe you’re thinking is an anticlimax, but in that case I feel sorry for you because that just means you don’t really know about interesting. Interesting is as good as it gets…

Robin McKinley – Dragonhaven (2007)

If you wake up and find yourself chained to a wall in a dungeon and there are a lot of spiky-looking iron things hanging by the fire, you’re relieved there isn’t anyone looking at you thoughtfully while he’s holding the spikiest in the fire, but that you’re alone isn’t much comfort.

Neil Gaiman – Trigger Warning (2015)

“…And I’m having a hot bath. Otherwise I’ll catch my death.”

Shadow imagined reaching out his hand and catching death in it, like a baseball, and he shivered.

“Black Dog”

Neil Gaiman – Trigger Warning (2015)

It was one of the things he liked about the British: even when they wanted to know what was happening on the inside, they did not ask. The world on the inside remained the world on the inside.

“Black Dog”

Neil Gaiman – Trigger Warning (2015)

Outside the pub it was raining cats and dogs.
Shadow was still not entirely convinced that he was in a pub.

“Black Dog”

Neil Gaiman – Trigger Warning (2015)

…The new mother did not like the girl and treated her badly, always favoring her own daughter, who was indolent and rude. One day, her stepmother gave the girl, who was only eighteen, twenty dollars to buy her drugs. “Don’t stop on the way,” she said.

So the girl…

“Diamonds and Pearls: A Fairy Tale”

Neil Gaiman – Trigger Warning (2015)

Several days later, it was returned to me by a taxi driver who had found it on the pavement outside the café. He told me my mother had appeared to him in a dream and given him my address and her recipe for old-fashioned cheesecake.

September tale, “A Calendar of Tales”