In a way fighting was just like using magic. You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse. Lev Grossman More Quotes by Lev Grossman More Quotes From Lev Grossman I went to college at Harvard, then did three years of graduate school at Yale. At both places I studied comparative literature. People find it odd that I went to both Harvard and Yale, and I guess it is odd, but that's just what people did where I grew up. Lev Grossman college years school The line between outside and inside is fuzzier in fantasy. Maybe that's something people are looking for. Lev Grossman fantasy lines people I never thought about doing a sequel when I was actually writing 'The Magicians.' I only ever considered it a standalone. Lev Grossman sequels magician writing I think every fantasy reader secretly believes they know how magic works. Lev Grossman magic believe thinking Every year the literary press praises dozens if not hundreds of novels to the skies, asserting explicitly or implicitly that these books will probably not be suffering water damage in the basements of their authors' houses 20 years from now. But historically, anyway, that's not the way the novelistic ecology works. Lev Grossman sky book years As a writer I'm more drawn to villains who are just slightly mad. Lev Grossman mad villain The novel is a highly corrupt medium, after all - in the end the vast majority of them simply aren't that great, and are destined to be forgotten. Lev Grossman majority ends forgotten Oddly, the meanings of books are defined for me much more by their beginnings and middles than they are by their endings. Lev Grossman defined book It's a great thing when you feel that you recognize yourself, deeply and movingly, in a work of literature. Lev Grossman great-things literature feels I love playing with the conventions of fantasy, and breaking rules, and crossing lines. Lev Grossman crossing-the-line breaking-rules lines Until now, I've been a kind of binge-writer - I'll carve out five or six hours on a weekend day and make a large container of espresso and just bang out a lot of words. Lev Grossman espresso weekend six The problem with growing up is that once you're grown up, the people who aren't grown up aren't fun anymore. Lev Grossman growing-up fun people Most people carry that pain around inside them their whole lives, until they kill the pain by other means, or until it kills them. But you, my friends, you found another way: a way to use the pain. To burn it as fuel, for light and warmth. You have learned to break the world that has tried to break you. Lev Grossman pain strength mean Supposedly I've got traces of an English accent, though I can't hear it. I must have inherited it from my mother, who's English, and then I think it was exacerbated by the fact that I live with an Australian. Lev Grossman mother facts thinking I read a lot of literary theory when I was in graduate school, especially about novels, and the best book I ever read about endings was Peter Brooks' 'Reading for the Plot. ' Lev Grossman reading book school Josh speculated about the hypothetical contents of an imaginary porn magazine for intelligent trees that would be entitled Enthouse. Lev Grossman intelligent would-be tree One already feels like an anachronism, writing novels in the age of what-ever-this-is-the-age-of, but touring to promote them feels doubly anachronistic. The marketplace is showing an increasing intolerance for the time-honored practice of printing information on paper and shipping it around the country. Lev Grossman practice writing country Being a writer can be isolating. It's good to be among readers and booksellers. Lev Grossman booksellers reader I'm a fantasy writer. I don't do SF. This is important to me. If you're not clear on what genre you're in, everything gets muddled, and it's hard to know which rules you're breaking. Lev Grossman genre fantasy important The paradox of the English country house is that its state of permanent decline, the fact that its heyday is always behind it, is part of the seduction, just as it is part of the seduction of books in general. Lev Grossman house country book
