As many have noted, the peril for authors is that our work space is too easily our play space. Guy Gavriel Kay More Quotes by Guy Gavriel Kay More Quotes From Guy Gavriel Kay My youngest brother had a wonderful schtick from some time in high school, through to graduating medicine. He had a card in his wallet that read, ‘If I am found with amnesia, please give me the following books to read …’ And it listed half a dozen books where he longed to recapture that first glorious sense of needing to find out ‘what happens next’ … the feeling that keeps you up half the night. The feeling that comes before the plot’s been learned. Guy Gavriel Kay brother book school There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk. Guy Gavriel Kay destiny hiking journey She was owner and captive, both, of a bitterly divided heart. Guy Gavriel Kay owners divided heart A hard truth: that courage can be without meaning or impact, need not be rewarded, or even known. The world has not been made in that way. Perhaps, however, within the self there might come a resonance, the awareness of having done something difficult, of having done . . . something. Guy Gavriel Kay impact self needs There are kinds of action, for good or ill, that lie so far outside the boundaries of normal behavior that they force us, in acknowledging that they have occurred, to restructure our own understanding of reality. We have to make room for them. Guy Gavriel Kay understanding lying reality Fantasy is, at its best, the purest access to storytelling that we have. It universalizes a tale, it evokes wonder and timeless narrative power, it touches upon inner journeys, it illuminates our collective and individual pasts, throws a focus beam on the present day, and presages the dangers and promises of the future. Guy Gavriel Kay focus journey past One didn't stop to talk with creatures from one's nightmares. Guy Gavriel Kay nightmare creatures Lazy poets try to elicit a reader's response with words designed to tug at the heart. Guy Gavriel Kay lazy heart trying The heart has its own laws... and the truth is... the truth is that you are the law of mine. Guy Gavriel Kay truth-is law heart We salvage what we can, what truly matters to us, even at the gates of despair. Guy Gavriel Kay gates despair matter How we remember changes how we have lived. Time runs both ways. We make stories of our lives. Guy Gavriel Kay stories running way In this world, where we find ourselves, we need compassion more than anything, I think, or we are all alone. Guy Gavriel Kay compassion needs thinking We worship…the powers that speak to our souls, if it seems they do. We do so knowing there is more to the world, and the half-world, and perhaps worlds beyond, than we can grasp. We always knew that. We can’t even stop children from dying, how would we presume to understand the truth of things? Behind things? Does the presence of one power deny another? [p. 176] Guy Gavriel Kay knowing soul children After a while, you start to realize that you should write a book you would want to read. I try to write a book I would enjoy. Guy Gavriel Kay writing trying book You'd never killed anyone. Then you had. Guy Gavriel Kay What man would dare believe that all he planned might come to pass? Guy Gavriel Kay might men believe By things so achingly small are lives measured and marred. Guy Gavriel Kay She had been a solitary child, and then solitary as a woman, drawn into an orbit of her own that took her away from others, even those who would be her friends. Guy Gavriel Kay orbit would-be children I will not say I am sorry, but I can tell you that I grieve. Guy Gavriel Kay i-can sorry grieving ... everyone knew that all islands were worlds unto themselves, that to come to an island was to come to another world. Guy Gavriel Kay another-world islands world
