He will apologize, or I'll give him a lesson in swordplay he will not like at all. Robin McKinley More Quotes by Robin McKinley More Quotes From Robin McKinley The story is always better than your ability to write it. My belief about this is that if you ever get to the point that you think you've done a story justice, you're in the wrong business. Robin McKinley justicewritingthinking I advise those who want to become writers to study veterinary medicine, which is easier. You don't want to be a writer unless you have no choice - and if you have no choice, good luck to you. Robin McKinley medicinegood-luckchoices The great thing about fantasy is that you can drag dreams and longings and hopes and fears and strivings out of your subconscious and call them 'magic' or 'dragons' or 'faeries' and get to know them better. But then I write the stuff. Obviously I'm prejudiced. Robin McKinley dragonsdreamwriting The story is always better than your ability to write it. Robin McKinley rejectionstorieswriting When you write your first novel you don't really know what you're doing. There may be writers out there who are brilliant, incisive and in control from their first 'Once upon a time'. I'm not one of them. Every once upon a time for me is another experience of white-water rafting in a leaky inner tube. And I have this theory that while the Story Council has its faults, it does have some idea that if books are going to get written, authors have to be able to write them. Robin McKinley writingbookideas There are things you don't want to know you can do Robin McKinley knowscan-dowant When they finished laughing they were on their way to being not just friends, but the dearest of friends, the sort of friends whose lives are shaped by the friendship. Robin McKinley just-friendslaughingway For anyone who is: just keep writing. Keep reading. If you are meant to be a writer, a storyteller, it'll work itself out. You just keep feeding it your energy, and giving it that crucial chance to work itself out. By reading and writing. Robin McKinley readingwritinggiving It is a much more straightforward thing to be a dog, and a dog's love, once given, is not reconsidered. Robin McKinley straightforwardgivendog Perhaps it is a human thing, to look upon such beauty and fail to encompass it. Robin McKinley failinghumanslooks Vampire. Dangerous. Unknowable. Seriously creepy. This one's name was Constantine. We'd met before. Robin McKinley vampirecreepynames Mathin said: "It is best to take your opponent's sash. The kysin mark each blow dealt, but to cut off the other rider's sash is best. This you will do." "Oh," said Harry. "You may, if you wish, unhorse him first," Mathin added as an afterthought. "Thanks," said Harry. Robin McKinley cuttingblowwish I get a little cranky with the whole business about kids not having attention spans. This reminds me of the usual business of thinking that the next generation is hopeless. Every generation has said that about every younger generation. Robin McKinley nextkidsthinking [Harry] had always suffered from a vague restlessness, a longing for adventure that she told herself severely was the result of reading too many novels when she was a small child. Robin McKinley readingadventurechildren With the knowledge of her aloneness came a rush of self-declaration: “I will not be nothing.” Robin McKinley declarationself At least I was true. My intellectual abilities gave me a release, and an excuse. I shunned company because I preferred books; and the dreams I confided to my father were of becoming a scholar in good earnest, and going to University. It was unheard-of several shocked governesses were only too quick to tell me, when I spoke a little too boldly -- but my father nodded and smiled and said, 'We'll see.' Since I believed my father could do anything -- except of course make me pretty -- I worked and studied with passionate dedication, lived in hope, and avoided society and mirrors. Robin McKinley dreamfatherbook Oh, why does compassion weaken us?' It doesn't, really...Somewhere where it all balances out-don't the philosophers have a name for it, the perfect place, the place where the answers live?-if we could go there, you could see it doesn't.It only looks, a little bit, like it does, from here, like an ant at the foot of an oak tree. He doesn't have a clue that it's a tree; it's the beginning of the wall round the world, to him. Robin McKinley wallcompassionnames Never assume. Never make plans. Keep doing the press-ups and deep knee bends: you'll need all your strength and flexibility when your life suddenly implodes. Maybe it won't — some people do lead enchanted lives — but odds are that it will. Some time. Robin McKinley oddspeopleneeds And if my choice is to sit graciously in my best robes and accept the inevitable or to bail a sea with a bucket, give me the bucket. Robin McKinley choicesseagiving One doesn't generally look into mirrors when one is especially angry; one has better things to do, like pace the floor or throw things. Robin McKinley pacemirrorslooks
