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In our world no one ever knows what to do, and everyone's just as clueless and full of crap as everyone else, and you have to figure it all out by yourself. And even after you've figured it out and done it, you'll never know whether you were right or wrong. You'll never know if you put the ring in the right volcano, or if things might have gone better if you hadn't. By Lev Grossman World Clueless Full Crap Figure

Quentin went to work on a bitter single malt Scotch that tasted like it had been decanted through the stump of an oak tree that had been killed by lightning. By Lev Grossman Scotch Quentin Lightning Work Bitter

I've learned that the creative life may or may not be the apex of human civilization, but either way it's not what I thought it was. It doesn't make you special and sparkly. You don't have to walk alone. You can work in an office - I've worked in offices for the past 15 years and written five novels while doing it. The creative life is forgiving: You can betray it all you want, again and again, and no matter how many times you do, it will always take you back. By Lev Grossman Civilization Learned Apex Human Thought

Sometimes I wonder if man was really meant to discover magic," Fogg said expansively. "It doesn't really make sense. It's a little too perfect, don't you think? If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so. Words and thoughts don't change anything. Language and reality are kept strictly apart - reality is tough, unyielding stuff, and it doesn't care what you think or feel or say about it. Or it shouldn't. You deal with it, and you get on with your life. "Little children don't know that. Magical thinking: that's what Freud called it. Once we learn otherwise we cease to be children. The separation of word and thing is the essential fact on which our adult lives are founded. By Lev Grossman Fogg Magic Expansively Man Meant

When he couldn't walk anymore he sailed, and when he couldn't sail anymore he was at the End of the World, where sat a dignified man in a dinner suit, dangling his long legs over the edge. He was patting his lapels and turning out his pockets and looking generally perplexed. "Bother," said the well-dressed man. "I've lost the Key to the World. If I don't wind it up and set its clockwork going again, the sun and moon and stars won't turn, and the world will be plunged into an eternal nighttime of miserable cold and darkness. Bother! By Lev Grossman Anymore End World Bother Sailed

It was funny how just when you thought you knew yourself through and through, you stumbled on a new kind of strength, a fresh reserve of power inside you that you never knew you had, and all at once you found yourself burning a little brighter and hotter than you ever had before. By Lev Grossman Knew Strength Funny Thought Stumbled

I love rare books. Not that I own a lot of them, mind you. You couldn't quite call me a rare-book collector. But I did once work in a rare-books library, and I wrote a novel about a rare book. By Lev Grossman Love Rare Books Book Mind

Suppose it really was a school for magic. Was it any good? What if he'd stumbled into some third-tier magic college by accident? He had to think practically. He didn't want to be committing himself to some community college of sorcery when he could have Magic Harvard or whatever. "Don't By Lev Grossman Magic Suppose School College Harvard

If you will, for just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. 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? Do you want to be the asshole who went to Fillory and was miserable there? Even in Fillory? Because that's who you are right now." There By Lev Grossman Life Decide Stop Miserable Fillory

Everyone was pretending to be bored to tears, or maybe they actually were, but Quentin wasn't. He was unexpectedly happy, though he instinctively kept it a secret. In fact he was so fully of joy and relief he could barely breathe. Like a receding glacier the ordeal of the Beast had left behind a changed world, jumbled and scraped and raw, but the earth was finally putting up new green shoots again. By Lev Grossman Quentin Tears Pretending Bored Happy

In books there's always somebody standing by ready to say hey, the world's in danger, evil's on the rise, but if you're really quick and take this ring and put it in that volcano over there everything will be fine.But in real life that guy never turns up. He's never there. He's busy handing out advice in the next universe over. In our world no one ever knows what to do, and everyone's just as clueless and full of crap as everyone else, and you have to figure it all out by yourself. And even after you've figured it out and done it, you'll never know whether you were right or wrong. You'll never know if you put the ring in the right volcano, or if things might have gone better if you hadn't. There's no answers in the back of the book. By Lev Grossman Hey Danger Evil Rise Standing

Needless to say, that meant that the Braekbills student body was quite the psychological menagerie. Carrying that much onboard cognitive processing power had a way of distorting your personality. And to actually want to work that hard, you had to be at least a little bit screwed up. By Lev Grossman Braekbills Needless Menagerie Meant Student

My specialty as a collector is books that almost have value. When I love a book, I don't buy the first edition, because those have become incredibly expensive. But I might buy a beat-up copy of the second edition, third printing, which looks almost exactly the same as the first edition except that a couple of typos have been fixed. By Lev Grossman Edition Specialty Collector Buy Books

His crush went from exciting to depressing, as if he'd gone from the first blush of infatuation to the terminal nostalgia of a former lover without even the temporary relief of an actual relationship in between. By Lev Grossman Depressing Crush Exciting Blush Infatuation

shake him up. Get him out of his comfort zone so he could stop sneering at everybody else who was out of theirs. Get him thinking about something besides his own neuroses for a change. By Lev Grossman Shake Change Comfort Zone Stop

And if she liked and trusted the person who asked, she would add that yes, it was kind of a lot to deal with: her outward affect was bright and capable, and that was no illusion, but equally real was the yawning pit of exhaustion inside her. She just felt so tired sometimes. And because of everything her parents asked of her, she was ashamed of being tired. She could not, would not let the pit swallow her up, as much as she sometimes wanted it to. By Lev Grossman Capable Illusion Trusted Person Add

A new thought happens and a new plant springs up. A feeling fades away and the plant dies. Some of the more common ones are always in bloom - fear, anger, happiness, love, envy. They're quite unruly, they grow like weeds. Certain basic mathematical ideas never go away either. But others are quite rare. Complex concepts, extreme or subtle emotions. Awe and wonder are harder to find than they once were. By Lev Grossman Plant Thought Springs Fear Anger

All of it just confirmed his belief that his real life, the life he should be living, had been mislaid through some clerical error by the cosmic bureaucracy. This couldn't be it. It had been diverted elsewhere, to somebody else, and he'd been issued this shitty substitute faux life instead By Lev Grossman Living Bureaucracy Life Confirmed Belief

I got my first whiff of what big-time adult literature was all about when I was in 8th grade. I got it from Mark Linn-Baker. You know - the guy from 'Perfect Strangers.' By Lev Grossman Grade Whiff Bigtime Adult Literature

One, your hair is stupid. And two, I don't know what it's like where you come from, but if you ever do anything that could get me sent back to Brooklyn again, I won't just break your nose. I will motherfucking kill you. By Lev Grossman Stupid Hair Brooklyn Nose Back

My book group has one rule: no books for adults. We read young adult fiction only. By Lev Grossman Rule Group Book Books Adults

he'd learned the secret of a richer, more powerful adult rage. "It isn't how it was! It never will be again! They changed the rules on us, so as far as I'm concerned all bets are off." He cinched his belt tight. "If They apologized, if They showed By Lev Grossman Richer Rage Learned Secret Powerful

How often have I met and disliked writers whose books I love; and conversely, hated the books and then wound up liking the writer? Too often. By Lev Grossman Books Love Conversely Hated Met

There must still be some last invisible unbroken strand connecting them, something deeper than mourning. The wound had healed but the scar wouldn't fade, not quite. By Lev Grossman Mourning Invisible Unbroken Strand Connecting

They went around the room telling stories about how they'd gotten here. No two were exactly the same, but there was always a certain family resemblance. Somebody went looking for a lost ball in an alley, or a stray goat in a drainage ditch, or fallowed an inexplicable extra cable in the high school computer room which led to a server closet that had never been there before. By Lev Grossman Telling Stories Room Resemblance Family

Until sunlight came bleeding up over the horizon, like more acid blood oozing out of his sick ruptured heart, which felt - not that anybody cared - like a rotten drum of biohazardous waste at the very bottom of a landfill, leaching poison into the groundwater, enough poison to kill an entire suburb full of innocent and unsuspecting children. By Lev Grossman Poison Horizon Heart Felt Cared

We're wired to expect the world to be brighter and more meaningful and more obviously interesting than it actually is. And when we realize that it isn't, we start looking around for the real world. By Lev Grossman World Wired Expect Brighter Meaningful

In real life humans didn't slay giants, because it was impossible. It would be like killing an apartment building with your bare hands. By Lev Grossman Giants Impossible Real Life Humans

She still had her bad days, no question, when the black dog of depression sniffed her out and settled its crushing weight on her chest and breathed its pungent dog breath in her face. On those days she called in sick to the IT shop where, most days, she untangled tangled networks for a song. On those days she pulled down the shades and ran dark for twelve or twenty-four or seventy-two hours, however long it took for the black dog to go on home to its dark master. By Lev Grossman Days Dog Question Face Black

It's not really possible to open 'The Casual Vacancy' without a lot of expectations both high and low crashing around in your brain and distorting your vision. There's no point pretending they're not there. By Lev Grossman Vacancy Casual Open Vision Lot

A silver statue of a bird that seemed to be twitching. "Poor little thing," he said, petting it with his large hands. "Someone tried to change it into a real bird, but it got stuck in between. It thinks it's alive, but it's much too heavy to fly." The metal bird cheeped feebly, a dry, clicking noise like an empty pistol. Fogg sighed and put it away in a drawer. "It's always launching itself out of windows and landing in the hedges. By Lev Grossman Bird Twitching Silver Statue Poor

Magic: it was what happened when the mind met the world, and the mind won for a change. By Lev Grossman Magic Mind World Change Happened

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. By Lev Grossman Skies Asserting Houses Literary Press

Well, let's see . . ." She put a finger on her chin and looked up and to one side, pretending to think. "I'm the best there is at what I do. I have some things I need to take care of, and it'll be a lot easier to do that with two million dollars. And I enjoy violence and riding around in stretch limos with nerds. The end!" She smiled. "Now you." If Stoppard had not already had a raging crush on Betsy, he had one by the end of that speech. Either way some of the attitude went out of him. By Lev Grossman End Betsy Side Pretending Stoppard

Maybe he was the anti-Santa, of the South Pole, and he was going to show them where the elves made lumps of coal for Anti-Christmas. By Lev Grossman Pole South Antisanta Antichristmas Show

Well, why would you create something that had the power to hurt You? Or any of Your creatures? Why don't You help us? Do You have any idea how much we hurt? How much we suffer?I know all things, daughter.Well, okay, then know this. We human beings are unhappy all the time. We hate ourselves and we hate each other and sometimes we wish You of Whoever had never created us or this shit-ass world or any other shit-ass world. Do You realize that? So next time You might think about not doing such a half-assed job. By Lev Grossman Create Power Hurt Hate Shitass

You do realize it's all right to have nice things sometimes, right? By Lev Grossman Realize Nice Things

You only had to see a unicorn lay open the side of a centaur once, the ribcage flashing white when the ripped skin flopped down, to swear a mighty oath never to fuck with or even look at another unicorn again. I'm putting down the hearts and fluffy clouds and backing away slowly. Don't want any trouble here. You can have all the rainbows. By Lev Grossman Unicorn Lay Open Side Centaur

Jesus. Janet had to turn away. You only had to see a unicorn lay open the side of a centaur once, the ribcage flashing white when the ripped skin flopped down, to swear a mighty oath never to fuck with or even look at another unicorn again. I'm putting down the hearts and fluffy clouds and backing away slowly. Don't want any trouble here. You can have all the rainbows. It By Lev Grossman Jesus Unicorn Janet Turn Slowly

And on and on, and it all sounded completely, horribly plausible. Any one of a thousand options promised - basically guaranteed - a rich, fulfilling, challenging future for him. So why did Quentin feel like he was looking around frantically for another way out? Why was he still waiting for some grand adventure to come and find him? The professors Quentin talked to about it didn't seem concerned at all. They didn't get what the problem was. What should he do? Why, anything he wanted to! By Lev Grossman Completely Horribly Plausible Quentin Sounded

I guess we're supposed to have faith.""I never really took you for the faith-having kind," Quentin said."I didn't either. But it's worked out so far. We've got five of the seven keys. You can't argue with results.""You can't," Quentin said, "but that's actually not the same thing as having faith.""Why do you always try to ruin everything?""I'm not ruining it. I just want to understand it.""If you had faith you wouldn't have to understand. By Lev Grossman Quentin Kind Said Faith Guess

Nothing a recovering addict likes more than a tale of how bad it had been in the old days, and how low a fellow addict had sunk. Let the one-downsmanship begin. By Lev Grossman Addict Days Sunk Recovering Tale

There is something beyond freedom that people need: work, love, belief in something, commitment to something. Freedom is not enough.It's necessary but it'd not sufficient. It's what you do with freedom - what you give it up for - that matters By Lev Grossman Work Love Belief Commitment Freedom

Sure, but real life's not actually like that," Quentin went on, fumbling after what he was sure was an important insight. "You don't just go on fun adventures for good causes and have happy endings. You're not going to be a character in a story, there's nobody arranging everything for you. The real world just doesn't work like that. By Lev Grossman Quentin Fumbling Insight Life Important

Funny how life had its little ways of surprising you. Little quirks of fate. By Lev Grossman Funny Life Surprising Fate Quirks

His whole personality was like an elaborate joke that he never stopped telling. By Lev Grossman Telling Personality Elaborate Joke Stopped

But where was he going to go, exactly? It was not considered the thing to look panicked or even especially concerned about graduation, but everything about the world after Brakebills felt dangerously vague and under-thought to Quentin. What was he going to do? What exactly? Every ambition he'd ever had in his life had been realized the day he was admitted to Brakebills, and he was struggling to formulate a new one with any kind of practical specificity. This wasn't Fillory, where there was some magical war to be fought. There was no Watcherwoman to be rooted out, no great evil to be vanquished, and without that everything else seemed so mundane and penny-ante. No one would come right out and say it, but the worldwide magical ecology was suffering from a serious imbalance: too many magicians, not enough monsters. By Lev Grossman Brakebills Quentin Magical Graduation Fillory

One thing had always confused Quentin about the magic he read about in books: it never seemed especially hard to do. There were lots of furrowed brows and thick books and long white beards and whatnot, but when it came right down to it, you memorized the incantation - or you just read it off the page, if that was too much trouble - you collected the herbs, waved the wand, rubbed the lamp, mixed the potion, said the words - and just like that the forces of the beyond did your bidding. It was like making salad dressing or driving stick or assembling Ikea furniture - just another skill you could learn. It took some time and effort, but compared to doing calculus, say, or playing the oboe - well, there really was no comparison. Any idiot could do magic. By Lev Grossman Quentin Read Books Thing Confused

She met a lot of people, and some people who weren't people. The more rural houses occasionally played host to minor demons and lesser fairies and local geo-specific nature spirits and elementals who lent street cred to the establishment in return for God knows what in the way of goods and services, she didn't ask. There was a certain romance to these beings; they seemed to embody the very promise of magic, which was to deliver unto her a world greater than the one into which she had been born. The moment when you walk into a room, and the guy playing pool has a pair of red leather wings sticking out of his back, and the chick smoking on the balcony has eyes of liquid golden fire - at that moment you think you'll never be sad or bored or lonely again. By Lev Grossman People Met Lot God Moment

You think Candy Land is real?" Josh said. "'Cause I would ditch Fillory in a red-hot minute for that shit. Chocolate Swamp and all. And have you seen Princess Frostine?" "Maybe By Lev Grossman Candy Land Real Frostine Fillory

The centaurs regarded Quentin with pity nicely tempered by a near-total lack of interest. Also, they seemed to be constantly afraid that he was going to tip over. None By Lev Grossman Quentin Interest Centaurs Regarded Pity

He and Janet talked like this all the time. The Fillorians didn't really get it, they thought High King Eliot and Queen Janet hated each other, but the truth was that in Quentin's absence Janet had become his principal confidante. Eliot supposed it was partly because they both found real romantic intimacy elusive and kind of uninteresting, so usually neither of them had a serious boyfriend, and they had to turn to each other for intelligent companionship. By Lev Grossman Janet Time Eliot Talked Fillorians

He was aware for the first time of how quiet the city had gotten. After dark the streets and canals seemed to empty out. As if Venice felt less of an obligation to pretend to be part of this millennium at night, and had reverted to its medieval self again. By Lev Grossman Aware Time Quiet City Venice

But walking along Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, in his black overcoat and his gray interview suit, Quentin knew he wasn't happy. Why not? He had painstakingly assembled all the ingredients of happiness. He had performed all the necessary rituals, spoken the words, lit the candles, made the sacrifices. But happiness, like a disobedient spirit, refused to come. He couldn't think what else to do. By Lev Grossman Brooklyn Quentin Avenue Suit Happy

It was strange to be naked in front of anybody. It was like that cold water out there in the bay: scary, you didn't think you could stand it, but then you plunged in and pretty soon you got used to it. There was enough hiding in life. Sometimes you just wanted to show somebody your tits. By Lev Grossman Strange Naked Front Scary Bay

Fresh tobacco. Black currants. God, it was so good. She kept it in her mouth for a count of ten before she swallowed. If there was any magic in this world that was not magic, it was wine. She smelled wet hay from a tumbledown field in Tuscany in the early morning, after the sky turned light, but before the sun burned off the dew. By Lev Grossman Fresh Tobacco Magic God Black

He poured, properly this time, even a little heavy. The dark liquid looked black in the glass, and she had to restrain herself from gulping it. Fresh tobacco. Black currants. God, it was so good. She kept it in her mouth for a count of ten before she swallowed. If there was any magic in this world that was not magic, it was wine. She smelled wet hay from a tumbledown field in Tuscany in the early morning, after the sky turned light, but before the sun burned off the dew. It reminded her of somewhere else too, a place she'd never seen, let alone smelled - someplace green and unspoiled and far away, which she knew well even though she'd never been there, just as it knew her well. She felt its pull on her, as she always had. But for the moment she let its name escape her. By Lev Grossman Poured Properly Time Heavy Black

When he graduated he'd thought life was going to be like a novel, starring him on his own personal hero's journey, and that the world would provide him with an endless series of evils to triumph over and life lessons to learn. It took him a while to figure out that wasn't how it worked. By Lev Grossman Life Starring Journey Learn Graduated

The library was still giving trouble: a few books in some of the more obscure corners of the stacks retained some autonomy, dating back to an infamous early experiment with flying books, and lately they'd begun to breed. Shocked undergraduates had stumbled on books in the very act. By Lev Grossman Books Trouble Autonomy Dating Breed

... and the rest of his life lay in front of him like a barren, meaningless postscript. By Lev Grossman Barren Meaningless Postscript Rest Life

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. By Lev Grossman Part Seduction English Decline General

I love playing with the conventions of fantasy, and breaking rules, and crossing lines. By Lev Grossman Fantasy Rules Lines Love Playing

I've only read three books by Stephen King. When I was 10 I read 'The Long Walk,' one of his pseudonymous Bachman books. In my early 20s, while trapped on a family vacation, I read 'The Dark Half,' which taught me a word I have never forgotten: psychopomp. Now I have read '11/22/63.' By Lev Grossman King Stephen Read Books Walk

The Deeper Magic always seemed to come up when Ember didn't feel like doing something, or needed to close a plot hole. By Lev Grossman Deeper Magic Ember Hole Feel

And at that moment, out of nowhere, Janet knew that she herself would never have children. Probably she'd known it for a while, but it was the first time she'd admitted it to herself. Let others breed. Let them, and God be with them. She would be the witness - she was tough enough to see everything break and not break herself. They also serve who fly around on hippogriffs and watch. By Lev Grossman Janet Moment Children Knew Break

I will take some chances. If you will, for just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. 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? By Lev Grossman Life Decide Chances Stop Miserable

The idea of some kind of objectively constant, universal literary value is seductive. It feels real. It feels like a stone cold fact that In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust, is better than A Shore Thing, by Snooki. And it may be; Snooki definitely has more one-star reviews on Amazon. But if literary value is real, no one seems to be able to locate it or define it very well. We're increasingly adrift in a grey void of aesthetic relativism. By Lev Grossman Constant Universal Seductive Snooki Idea

There's no getting away from yourself. Not even in Fillory. By Lev Grossman Fillory

I can't overstate how little I knew about myself at 22, or how little I'd thought about what I was doing. When I graduated from college I genuinely believed that the creative life was the apex of human existence, and that to work at an ordinary office job was a betrayal of that life, and I had to pursue that life at all costs. Management consulting, law school, med school, those were fine for other people - I didn't judge! - but I was an artist. I was super special. I was sparkly. I would walk another path.And I would walk it alone. That was another thing I knew about being an artist: You didn't need other people. Other people were a distraction. My little chrysalis of genius was going to seat one and one only. By Lev Grossman Life People Overstate Thought School

The effect was of somebody reluctantly reading a prepared statement off a teleprompter, a statement prepared by somebody against whom she had a bitter and long-standing grudge. He considered the possibility that she might be clinically depressed. By Lev Grossman Prepared Statement Teleprompter Grudge Effect

Sometimes I think I am fate's sword. She wields me cruelly." Quentin wondered what it was like to be so unselfconsciously melodramatic. Nice, probably. "Right. By Lev Grossman Sword Fate Nice Cruelly Quentin

Being a writer can be isolating. It's good to be among readers and booksellers. By Lev Grossman Isolating Writer Booksellers Good Readers

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? Do you want to be the asshole who went to Fillory and was miserable there? Even in Fillory? Because that's who you are right now."There was something true about what Alice was saying. But he couldn't grasp it. It was too complex, or too simple. Too something ... It was strange: he's thought that doing magic was the hardest thing he would ever do, but the rest of it was so much harder. It turned out that magic was the easy part. By Lev Grossman Decide Happy Fillory Miserable Magic

Quentin had an obsolete sailing ship that had been raised from the dead. He had psychotically effective swordsman and an enigmatic witch-queen. It wasn't the Fellowship of the Ring, but then again he wasn't trying to save the world from Sauron, he was trying to perform a tax audit on a bunch of hick islanders ... By Lev Grossman Quentin Dead Obsolete Sailing Ship

Fanfiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language. By Lev Grossman Fanfiction Bunker Literature Reinvented Scratch

He almost felt like he was betraying Julia. But what did he owe her? It's not like she even would have cared. And Professor Sunderland was here. He wanted somebody who was part of his new world. Julia had her chance. By Lev Grossman Felt Betraying Julia Professor Sunderland

The problem was that Julia was smart, and Julia was interested in the truth. She didn't like inconsistencies, and she didn't let go until they were resolved, ever. By Lev Grossman Julia Smart Truth Problem Interested

Up until relatively recently, creating original characters from scratch wasn't a major part of an author's job description. When Virgil wrote The Aeneid, he didn't invent Aeneas; Aeneas was a minor character in Homer's Odyssey whose unauthorized further adventures Virgil decided to chronicle. Shakespeare didn't invent Hamlet and King Lear; he plucked them from historical and literary sources. Writers weren't the originators of the stories they told; they were just the temporary curators of them. Real creation was something the gods did.All that has changed. Today the way we think of creativity is dominated by Romantic notions of individual genius and originality, and late-capitalist concepts of intellectual property, under which artists are businesspeople whose creations are the commodities they have for sale. By Lev Grossman Virgil Aeneas Recently Creating Description

A lot of young-adult authors, great ones, have tried their hands at literary fiction, and not a lot of them have succeeded. Not even Roald Dahl could switch-hit, and not for lack of trying. By Lev Grossman Lot Authors Great Fiction Succeeded

In real life it was like they were playing some children's game. It was a little kid's idea of a magical object. Though what did you expect from a bunch of talking By Lev Grossman Game Real Life Playing Children

He showed her a wonderful garden, where all the thoughts and feelings that had ever been thought and felt existed in the form of plants, blooming and green as they passed through people's minds and lived in their hearts, and then drying up and turning brown and crisp as they passed out of mind, sometimes to bloom again in another season, sometimes gone forever. It By Lev Grossman Passed Thoughts Thought Garden Plants

For the true magician there is no very clear line between what lies inside the mind and what lies outside it.If you desire something, it will become substance. If you despise it, you will see it destroyed. A master magician is not much different from a child or a madman in that respect. It takes a very clear head and a very strong will to operate once you are in that place. And you will find out very quickly whether or not you have that clarity and that strength. By Lev Grossman Lies Substance True Line Inside

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. By Lev Grossman Pain Lives People Carry Inside

Would have to find something else, he thought mazily. Something new. Couldn't stay here anymore. Couldn't go back. Only forward. By Lev Grossman Mazily Find Thought Anymore Back

Quentin found himself staring at the end of his Brakebills careers across the perilously slender gap of only two months of time. It was like he'd been wending his way though a vast, glittering city, zig-zagging through side streets and wandering through buildings and haunted de Chrico arcades and little hidden piazzas, the whole time thinking that he'd barely scratched the surface, that he was just seeing a tiny sliver of one little neighborhood. And then suddenly he turned a corner and it turned out that he'd been through the whole city, it was all behind him, and all that was left was one short street leading straight out of town. By Lev Grossman Brakebills Quentin Time City Found

Forget everything you ordinarily associate with religious study. Strip away all the reverence and the awe and the art and the philosophy of it. Treat the subject coldly. Imagine yourself to be a theologist, but a special kind of theologist, one who studies gods the way an entomologist studies insects. Take as your dataset the entirety of world mythology and treat it as a collection of field observations and statistics pertaining to a hypothetical species: the god. Proceed from there. By Lev Grossman Forget Study Ordinarily Associate Religious

They were joined by Julia, who kept her sunglasses on and ate only marmite, straight from the jar, which if anything seemed like further proof of her declining humanity. By Lev Grossman Julia Marmite Straight Jar Humanity

Well, look, I was angry. I don't think I commit a lot of gratuitous violence, but this was war, and he was a jerk, and I made a mess of him. I threw him through a couple of doors, and he cried like a fucking baby. You know what they used to write on cannons? The last argument of kings. I guess you could say magic is the last argument of queens. By Lev Grossman Angry Argument Violence War Jerk

He was asked to draw a rabbit that wouldn't keep still as he drew it - as soon as it had paws it scratched itself luxuriously and then went hopping off around the page, nibbling at the other questions, so that he had to chase it with the pencil to finish filling in the fur. He wound up pacifying it with some hastily sketched radishes and then drawing a fence around it to keep it in line. By Lev Grossman Page Nibbling Questions Fur Asked

She become moody and depressed. She started wearing black and listening to the Smiths and reading Camus in the original whatever. Her eyes became interestingly pouchy and sunken. By Lev Grossman Depressed Moody Smiths Camus Started

She started wearing black and listening to the Smiths and reading Camus By Lev Grossman Camus Smiths Started Wearing Black

Its composure thoroughly disrupted, the little treelet, the picture of arboreal distress, let its branches droop a little, and its green birch leaves fluttered anxiously. By Lev Grossman Disrupted Treelet Distress Anxiously Composure

It wasn't a place of worship, they explained, with a note of whinnying condescension, but a community devoted to the most absolute possible expression, or incarnationor perhaps realization was an even better wordof the incomprehensibly complex but infinitely pure sylvan values of centaurhood, which Quentin's fallen human brain could never hope to grasp. There was something distinctly German about the centaurs. By Lev Grossman Quentin Worship Explained Condescension Expression

A Fillory without a god. It was a radical notion. But he thought about it, and it didn't seem like a terrible one. They would be on their own this time - the kings, the queens, the people, the animals, the spirits, the monsters. They'd have to decide what was right and just and fair for themselves. By Lev Grossman Fillory God Notion Radical Time

I think she was from Connecticut, but not fancy Connecticut, with the money and the Kennedy cousins and the Lyme disease. I think she was from New Haven, or Bridgeport. By Lev Grossman Connecticut Kennedy Lyme Disease Fancy

But I'm sorry, where did you think you were, motherfucker? Connecticut? You're in a magic safe house in Bed-Stuy, borough of Brooklyn. There was a considerable Venn diagram overlap between people who lived in Bed-Stuy and people who had motherfucking guns. Fool. By Lev Grossman Motherfucker Connecticut Bedstuy Brooklyn People

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. By Lev Grossman Medium Great Forgotten Highly Corrupt

Hey - Penny, is it?" Plum said. "That ought to pay for Quentin's library fines, don't you think? Or Alice could just punch you again, it's all good." But By Lev Grossman Penny Hey Quentin Plum Alice

Age is wasted on the young. Just like youth. By Lev Grossman Age Young Wasted Youth

Clouds in Fillory weren't clammy and disappointing the way they were in the real world, they brushed past you all warm and soft and cottony, just solid enough to be comforting. Fuck love, fuck marriage, fuck children, fuck fucking itself: this was his romance, this fantasy land at whose helm he sat, steering it on and on into the future, world without end, until he died and tastefully idealized statues were made of him. By Lev Grossman Fuck Fillory Clouds Cottony Comforting

I have no doubt there are magician psychopaths, and magician serial killers. I doubt Brakebills admissions is very good at screening for those. By Lev Grossman Psychopaths Killers Magician Doubt Serial

Nothing made you feel more like a fucking sorcerer than aviating under your own power. Yippee ki-yay, motherfuckers. By Lev Grossman Motherfuckers Power Made Feel Fucking

It's very important, at least to me as a writer, that there be some rules on the table when I'm writing. Rules come from genres. You're writing in a genre, there are rules, which is great because then you can break the rules. That's when really exciting things happen. By Lev Grossman Rules Important Writer Table Writing

You don't live in a castle full of spiral stairs without getting calves of adamantium. By Lev Grossman Adamantium Live Castle Full Spiral

Everyone here was the cleverest little monkey in his or her particular tree. Except now we're all in one tree together. It can be a shock. Not enough coconuts to go round. You'll be dealing with your equals for the first time in your life, and your betters. You won't like it. By Lev Grossman Tree Cleverest Monkey Shock Round

I adore the way fan fiction writers engage with and critique source texts, by manipulating them and breaking their rules. Some of it is straight-up homage, but a lot of [fan fiction] is really aggressive towards the source text. One tends to think of it as written by total fanboys and fangirls as a kind of worshipful act, but a lot of times you'll read these stories and it'll be like 'What if Star Trek had an openly gay character on the bridge?' And of course the point is that they don't, and they wouldn't, because they don't have the balls, or they are beholden to their advertisers, or whatever. There's a powerful critique, almost punk-like anger, being expressed there - which I find fascinating and interesting and cool. By Lev Grossman Fan Fiction Source Rules Lot

Fatigue meant nothing when you actually wanted to suffer. By Lev Grossman Fatigue Suffer Meant Wanted

He knew for a fact that one of the girls had managed to take over the plenary session of the national model UN and push through a motion sanctioning the use of nuclear weapons to protect an endangered species of sea turtle. This while representing Lesotho. By Lev Grossman Turtle Knew Fact Girls Managed

To become a magician you must do something very different," the man said. This was clearly his set piece. "You cannot study magic. You cannot learn it. You must ingest it. Digest it. You must merge with it. And it with you. "When a magician casts a spell, he does not first mentally review the Major, Minor, Tertiary, and Quaternary Circumstances. He does not search his soul to determine the phase of the moon, and the nearest body of water, and the last time he wiped his ass. When he wishes to cast a spell he simply casts it. When he wishes to fly, he simply flies. When he wants the dishes done, they simply are. By Lev Grossman Man Simply Magician Wishes Casts

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. By Lev Grossman Feels Anachronism Writing Anachronistic Age

5 1/2 centuries after its 1.0 release, the book is a surprisingly robust piece of information technology. Sure, its memory is relatively tinyone novel adds up to less than a megabyte. But it doesn't need charging, and it never crashes. Its interface is rapidly and intuitively navigable. The scroll never stood a chance. By Lev Grossman Release Centuries Technology Book Surprisingly

You don't learn about yourself by being alone, you learn about yourself from other people. By Lev Grossman Learn People

Language and reality are kept strictly apart - reality is tough, unyielding stuff, and it doesn't care what you think or feel or say about it. Or it shouldn't. By Lev Grossman Reality Language Tough Unyielding Stuff

I don't know if I've ever derived such an immediate sense of calm and well-being from any book as I did from 'Right Ho, Jeeves.' It was like I was Pac-Man and the book was a power-up. By Lev Grossman Jeeves Book Derived Sense Calm

It's time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost. By Lev Grossman Lost Time Live Mourn

But you couldn't mourn forever. Or you could, but as it turned out there were better things to do. By Lev Grossman Forever Mourn Turned Things

The line between outside and inside is fuzzier in fantasy. Maybe that's something people are looking for. By Lev Grossman Fantasy Line Inside Fuzzier People

[F]or just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. 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. By Lev Grossman Life Stop Perfect Forever Secret

A gang of wild turkeys patrolled the edge of the forest, upright and alert, looking oddly saurian and menacing, like a lost squadron of velociraptors. By Lev Grossman Forest Upright Alert Menacing Velociraptors

I have spent many, many hours reading J.K. Rowling's work. I am a known 'Harry Potter' fan. By Lev Grossman Spent Hours Reading Fan Harry

Though he found himself reluctant to be the direct cause of any actual killing. This wasn't Tolkien - these weren't orcs and trolls and giant spiders and whatever else, evil creatures that you were free to commit genocide on without any complicated moral ramifications. By Lev Grossman Killing Found Reluctant Direct Actual

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. By Lev Grossman Writer Fantasy Muddled Breaking Important

Sometimes he looked at her and thought, Gosh, I wonder what's underneath all that anger, all that hard glossy armor? Maybe there's just an innocent, wounded little girl in there who wants to come out and play and be loved and get happy. But now he wondered if maybe that little girl was long gone, or if she'd ever been there at all. What was under all that armor, all that anger? More anger, and more armor. Anger and armor, all the way down. By Lev Grossman Gosh Armor Anger Thought Girl

As much as it was like anything, magic was like a language. And like a language, textbooks and teachers treated it as an orderly system for the purposes of teaching it, but in reality it was complex and chaotic and organic. It obeyed rules only to the extent that it felt like it, and there were almost as many special cases and one-time variations as there were rules. These Exceptions were indicated by rows of asterisks and daggers and other more obscure typographical fauna which invited the reader to peruse the many footnotes that cluttered up the margins of magical reference books like Talmudic commentary. By Lev Grossman Language Magic Rules Exceptions Talmudic

This was a double game: he was trying to save his childhood, to preserve it and trap it in amber, but to do that he was calling on things that partook of the world beyond childhood, whose touch would leave him even less innocent than he already was. What would that make him? Neither a child nor an adult, neither innocent nor wise. Perhaps that is what a monster is. By Lev Grossman Childhood Game Amber Double Save

I'm not one of your knockabout, knuckle-scarred, Internet-controversy-courting book critics. Occasionally I stumble into controversy accidentally, but not because I enjoy it. It's probably just because I'm a weird person. By Lev Grossman Knucklescarred Knockabout Book Critics Occasionally

He imagined another life for himself as one of these silent scholars, buried in his research like a guinea pig in its wood shavings, nibbling away steadily after some arcane piece of knowledge in the hope of making an addition, however imperceptible, to the collective pile. By Lev Grossman Scholars Buried Shavings Nibbling Addition

No one gets punished for anything. We do whatever we want, and that's all we do, and nobody stops us, and nobody cares. By Lev Grossman Punished Cares Stops

Eliot had no idea where he was going, but he'd read enough to know that a state of relative ignorance wasn't necessarily a handicap on a quest. It was something your dauntless questing knight accepted and embraced. You lit out into the wilderness at random, and if your state of mind, or maybe it was your soul, was correct, then adventure would find you through the natural course of events. It was like free association - there were no wrong answers. It worked as long as you weren't trying too hard. By Lev Grossman Eliot Quest State Idea Read

...being around him wasn't good for Quentin. He could feel himself regressing in the direction of an adolescent tantrum - it was like trying to talk to his parents. He lost all perspective on who he was and how far he'd come. By Lev Grossman Quentin Good Tantrum Parents Feel

A novel with a bad middle is a bad book. A bad ending is something I've just gotten in the habit of forgiving. By Lev Grossman Bad Book Middle Forgiving Ending

The whole scene had a dreamlike quality, like a Chagall painting come to life. By Lev Grossman Chagall Quality Life Scene Dreamlike

I loved fantasy, but I particularly loved the stories in which somebody got out of where they were and into somewhere better - as in the 'Chronicles Of Narnia,' 'The Wizard Of Oz,' 'The Phantom Tollbooth,' the 'Dungeons & Dragons' cartoon on Saturday morning in the '80s. By Lev Grossman Dungeons Chronicles Narnia Tollbooth Dragons

trick was just not wanting anything. That was power. That was courage: the courage not to love anyone or hope for anything. The By Lev Grossman Trick Wanting Courage Power Love

The trick was just not wanting anything. That was power. That was courage: the courage not to love anyone or hope for anything. By Lev Grossman Trick Wanting Courage Power Love

That was magic for you, right? The thing about magic, the real kind: it didn't make excuses, and it was never funny. By Lev Grossman Magic Kind Excuses Funny Thing

He was in the right place. He was living his best life. How many other people in the multiverse could say that? By Lev Grossman Place Life Living People Multiverse

It would be like Prospero's island, but in a good way: not a country of exile, a model world, safe and peaceful and private. A magician's land. By Lev Grossman Prospero Island Exile World Safe

Guy lives in a fantasy world without junk food or cars or trans fats or TV and he's still fat. You had to admire his dedication to the cause. By Lev Grossman Guy Lives Fantasy World Junk

I've waited a long time for this," Penny said. "Then this is going to be kind of an anticlimax," Alice said, and she punched him in the face. Boom! Oh my God. It was beautiful, just like in a movie: straight from the shoulder, feet planted, hips rolled, follow-through, the works. Penny never saw it coming. By Lev Grossman Penny Alice Waited Long Time

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. By Lev Grossman English Supposedly Accent Traces Hear

It was always buzzing and singing and glowing and sparking to no particular purpose. Magic was decidedly imperfect. But the really funny thing, she thought, was that if it were perfect, it wouldn't be so beautiful. On By Lev Grossman Purpose Buzzing Singing Glowing Sparking

I never thought about doing a sequel when I was actually writing 'The Magicians.' I only ever considered it a standalone. By Lev Grossman Magicians Writing Thought Sequel Standalone

Whoever that hermit was, he obviously despised his fellow man, and that meant he was OK in Eliot's book. By Lev Grossman Eliot Man Book Hermit Despised

There was more to life than being fat and safe and warm in a clockwork luxury resort. Or maybe there wasn't more, but he was going to find out. And how did you find out? You had an adventure. That's how. You picked up a golden key. By Lev Grossman Resort Life Fat Safe Warm

An elephant fell off a cliff, a copper cliff, which practically broke my heart. Elephants and gravity, not a great mix. But you know what? The other elephants immediately stopped and went down and found what was left of it and stood around it in a ring. I couldn't see what they did, but when they were done - it took a day - the one that fell was all back together and up and running again. They resurrected him, I've never seen anything like it. Elephants, they know some shit. I don't know why we rule them, they should rule us. By Lev Grossman Cliff Heart Elephants Copper Practically

If this was madness it was an entirely new kind of madness, as yet undocumented in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. She had nerdophrenia. She was dorkotic. By Lev Grossman Disorders Diagnostic Statistical Manual Mental

He wasn't surprised. He was used to this anticlimactic feeling, where by the time you've done all the work to get something you don't even want it anymore. By Lev Grossman Surprised Feeling Anymore Anticlimactic Time

When she looked back the whole thing had a queer, unreal feeling to it, but then again you often get a queer, unreal feeling when you stay up till four and get up at seven. By Lev Grossman Queer Unreal Feeling Looked Back

She lay there thinking, on the rich, wet graveyard grass, before the tomb of some random parishioner - Beloved Son, Husband, Father - and what she thought was this: she'd been right about almost everything. She'd gotten nearly full marks. A minus again. Blew only one question.Here's the one thing I got wrong, she thought. I thought that they could never wear me down. By Lev Grossman Husband Father Beloved Son Thinking

His bedroom was the gilded, diamond-studded, pearl-encrusted rococo lair of a god-king. By Lev Grossman Diamondstudded Gilded Pearlencrusted Godking Bedroom

I always hated those fantasy books where, at the end, all the kids had to go home. At the end of a Narnia book, you always got shown the door. Same with The Wizard Of Oz and The Phantom Tollbooth. You get kicked out of your magic land. It's like, "By the way, here's your next surprise: You get to go home!" And the kids are all like, "Yay, we get to go home!" I never bought that. Did anybody buy that? By Lev Grossman Home End Hated Fantasy Narnia

Facing up to the nightmare of the past is what gives you the power to build your future. By Lev Grossman Facing Future Nightmare Past Power

It didn't matter where you were, if you were in a room full of books you were at least halfway home. By Lev Grossman Home Matter Room Full Books

He'd spent too long being disappointed by the world - he'd spent so many years pining for something like this, some proof that the real world wasn't the only world, and coping with the overwhelming evidence that it in fact was. By Lev Grossman Spent World Long Disappointed Years

Quentin felt like all the Physical Kids were falling in love with each other, not just him and Alice, or at least with who they were when they were around each other. In the mornings they slept late. In the afternoons they played pool and boated on the Hudson and interpreted each other's dreams and debated meaningless points of magical technique. They discussed the varying intensities and timbres of their hangovers. There was an ongoing competition, hotly contested, as to who could make the single most boring observation. By Lev Grossman Alice Physical Kids Quentin Felt

She swore she could prove it mathematically, but the calculations required were so involved that they would have required a computer the size of the universe, running for a length of time that would have taken them past the projected heat-death of the universe, to work them out. It was pretty much the definition of moot. By Lev Grossman Universe Required Mathematically Running Swore

Emily Greenstreet was one of these girls that nobody ever notices, who are only friends with other girls nobody notices. Nobody likes or dislikes them. They have weak chins, or chicken-pox scars, or their glasses are too big. I know I'm being mean. But you know, they're just sort of at the edge of everything. By Lev Grossman Notices Greenstreet Girls Emily Friends

I'm not a Dickens guy. In grad school I had to take at least one course on the Victorians, so I took The Later Dickens, because that was what there was. By Lev Grossman Dickens Guy Victorians Grad School

Now that he was teaching Quentin could see why the faculty didn't bother trying to improve the climate. It kept people amazingly focused. ... You could actually watch as the determination to seize the moment and live life to the fullest ebbed right out of them, and they resigned themselves to lonely, silent, indoor study instead. By Lev Grossman Quentin Climate Teaching Faculty Bother

Credulity that was being tested. A fat man with red By Lev Grossman Credulity Tested Red Fat Man

Everything people forget about ends up there one day, they said. Toys, tables, whole houses. And people end up there too. They get forgotten as well. By Lev Grossman Day Toys Tables Forget People

Becoming an author changes your attitude too. Once you see where books come from, and how they're made, they never seem quite as sacred again. By Lev Grossman Author Attitude Made Books Sacred

I got my heart's desire, and there my troubles began. By Lev Grossman Desire Began Heart Troubles

Free Trader Beowulf - you had to be at least forty and a recovering pen-and-paper role-playing-gamer to get the reference, but it was apt. Google it. By Lev Grossman Beowulf Trader Free Recovering Reference

In one huge leather-gloved fist Jollyby held up a large, madly kicking hare by its ears.'Son of a bitch,' Dauntless said. 'He caught it.'Dauntless was a talking horse. She just didn't talk much. By Lev Grossman Son Dauntless Jollyby Large Madly

Even though I have spent literally years of my life trying to learn another language, any other language - and even though I have in the past claimed in several key professional contexts that I speak other languages - I am in fact still trapped inside the bubble of English. By Lev Grossman Language English Languages Spent Literally

Kids are not physical creatures, and they're not stupid. They know all about violence and power and raw emotions. What's really scary is when adults pretend that such things don't exist."(Grossman's review of The Hunger Games in "Time" magazine, Sept. 7, 2009) By Lev Grossman Kids Creatures Stupid Physical Time

Personally, I think the "Potter" books have too many adverbs and not enough sex. By Lev Grossman Potter Personally Books Sex Adverbs

My ultimate goal is to drive people back to the books, when I think of an adaptation. By Lev Grossman Books Adaptation Ultimate Goal Drive

He felt like he was coming back to life too. Not that he'd been dead, just ... not quite alive. Something else. By Lev Grossman Felt Coming Back Life Dead

Maybe there's a sense that technology isn't necessarily the answer to a lot of our problems. Fantasy offers readers a less radically alienated world - a world where desires and feelings that normally are trapped inside your mind are made real in the form of magic. By Lev Grossman Problems Sense Technology Necessarily Answer

Honk!" he yelled. "Honk honk honk honk honk honk honk!"His classmates agreed. By Lev Grossman Honk Yelled Agreed Classmates

I never went back to my room. I took the Fung Wah bus from South Station. By Lev Grossman Room Station Back Fung Wah

I studied the cello for a long time, from when I was little up through college. By Lev Grossman Time College Studied Cello Long

I've drunk Amazon's free Diet Coke. Nothing makes more sense to me than a company trying to make bookselling into a profitable business. I'm not anti-Amazon, and I'm not pro-publishers either. I'm pro-books. By Lev Grossman Coke Amazon Diet Drunk Free

I got my heart's desire, he thought, and there my troubles began. By Lev Grossman Desire Thought Began Heart Troubles

Blue screen of death: she'd crashed his system. Oh, well. Boys were so unstable that way, full of buggy, self-contradictory code, pathetically unoptimized. By Lev Grossman Blue Death System Screen Crashed

As a teenager in Brooklyn Quentin had often imagined himself engaged in martial heroics, but after this he knew, as a cold immutable fact, that he would do anything necessary, sacrificing whatever or whomever he had to, to avoid risking exposure to physical violence. Shame never came into it. He embraced his new identity as a coward. He would run in the other direction. He would lie down and cry and put his arms over his head or play dead. It didn't matter what he had to do, he would do it and be glad. By Lev Grossman Brooklyn Quentin Heroics Knew Fact

This is a feeling that you had, Quentin, she said. Once, a very long time ago. A rare one. This is how you felt when you were eight years old, and you opened one of the Fillory books for the first time, and you felt awe and joy and hope and longing all at once. You felt them very strongly, Quentin. You dreamed of Fillory then, with a power and an innocence that not many people ever experience. That's where all this began for you. You wanted the world to be better than it was. By Lev Grossman Quentin Felt Fillory Feeling Time

a bunch of depressed, overeducated shut-ins, but they seemed human to her. By Lev Grossman Depressed Overeducated Shutins Bunch Human

I've read plenty of J.G. Ballard, but I'm not really a Ballardian. I've met Ballardians, and I know when I can't compete. I like Ballard in his relatively unchallenging apocalyptic mode: 'Vermilion Sands,' 'The Drowned World,' 'The Burning World,' 'The Crystal World.' By Lev Grossman World Ballard Read Plenty Ballardian

Julia had been very very good for a very long time, and the funny thing about that was, if you're too good too much of the time, people start to forget about you. You're not a problem, so people can strike you off their list of things to worry about. Nobody makes a fuss over you. They make a fuss over the bad girls. By Lev Grossman Time Good Julia People Long

Most of the students, and probably the faculty, were ambivalent about the whole idea of Disciplines. They were socially divisive, the theory behind them was weak, and everybody ended up studying pretty much the same curriculum anyway, so what was the point? But it was traditional for every student to have one, so a Discipline every student would have. Alice called it her magic bat mitzvah. By Lev Grossman Faculty Student Ambivalent Idea Disciplines

was so easy to ignore people when you understood how little power they really had over you - he By Lev Grossman Easy Ignore People Understood Power

When the oldest Chatwin, melancholy Martin, opens the cabinet of the grandfather clock that stands in a dark, narrow back hallway in his aunt's house and slip through into Fillory ... it's like he's opening the covers of a book, but a book that did what books always promised to do and never ac tually quite did: get you out, really out, of where you were and into something better. By Lev Grossman Chatwin Martin Fillory Melancholy Opens

The memories were safe, sealed forever in amber. By Lev Grossman Safe Sealed Amber Memories Forever

Awesome axes," Josh said. "Where did you - " "Your mom gave them to me," Janet said. "After I fucked her." "Why - " "Because she enjoyed it so much. By Lev Grossman Josh Awesome Axes Janet Mom

Never risking anything meant never having or doing or being anything either. Life is risk, it turned out. By Lev Grossman Risking Meant Life Risk Turned

The real problem with being around James was that he was always the hero. And what did that make you? Either the sidekick or the villain. By Lev Grossman James Hero Real Problem Make

I just completed a long car trip on a Sunday in August with two small children, which believe me is enough to convince you that Samuel Beckett was right about everything. By Lev Grossman Sunday August Samuel Beckett Children

Do you promise to hate my parents as much as I do?""Oh, absolutely," Quentin said. "Maybe even more. By Lev Grossman Absolutely Quentin Promise Hate Parents

Beer might help with that," Quentin said. He felt punchy. "This could be the next clue. If it's a talking beer, I mean a talking bear, we could, you know, talk to it. By Lev Grossman Quentin Beer Talking Punchy Clue

Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred. By Lev Grossman Hatred Comments Youtube Make Weep

There were things he'd been scared to face his whole life, and now that he was looking them in the eye they weren't quite as scary as he first thought. By Lev Grossman Life Thought Things Scared Face

As soon as he seized happiness it dispersed and reappeared somewhere else. Like Fillory, like everything good, it never lasted. What a terrible thing to know. By Lev Grossman Fillory Seized Happiness Dispersed Reappeared

That's what death did, it treated you like a child, like everything you had ever thought and done and cared about was just a child's game, to be crumpled up and thrown away when it was over. It didn't matter. Death didn't respect you. Death thought you were bullshit, and it wanted to make sure you knew it. By Lev Grossman Child Game Death Treated Cared

When I got to college I simply decided that I could speak French, because I just could not spend any more time in French classes. I went ahead and took courses on French literature, some of them even taught in French. By Lev Grossman French Classes College Simply Decided

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. By Lev Grossman Yale Harvard College Years Graduate

Reading the Fillory books you would think that all one has to do is behave honorably and bravely and all will be well. What a lesson to teach young children. What a way to prepare them for the rest of their lives. By Lev Grossman Fillory Reading Books Behave Honorably

The situation wasn't ideal. But it was what she had to work with, so she would work with it. She was a tough one, By Lev Grossman Ideal Situation Work Tough

Becoming me was the greatest creative project of my life. By Lev Grossman Life Greatest Creative Project

These were authentically coarse-woven curtains, woven by people who didn't know any other way of making curtains, who didn't even know that their way was special, and whose way was therefore not discounted and emptied of meaning in advance. This made him very happy. It was as if he'd been looking for these curtains forever, as if he'd been waiting his whole life to wake up one morning in a room in which those coarse-woven, stem-green curtains hung over the windows. By Lev Grossman Curtains Woven Special Advance Authentically

If my generation is remembered for anything, it will be as the last one that remembers the world before the Internet. By Lev Grossman Internet Generation Remembered Remembers World

Whether or not he was in it, whether or not he could see or touch it, he'd thought there would always be a FIllory out there somewhere. He loved knowing it was there. It anchored his sense of happiness, the way a distant stockpile of gold might underwrite the value of a paper bill. By Lev Grossman Touch Thought Fillory Loved Knowing

Everybody wanted to be the hero of their own story. Nobody wanted to be comic relief. By Lev Grossman Story Wanted Hero Relief Comic

Who hadn't at some point in his life wanted to climb to the top of a sailing ship in full flight? By Lev Grossman Flight Point Life Wanted Climb

Drinks were a lot like books, really: it didn't matter where you were, the contents of a vodka tonic were always more or less the same, and you could count on them to take you away to somewhere better or at least make your present arrangements seem more manageable. By Lev Grossman Drinks Books Manageable Lot Matter

Everybody's forgiven you but you. And you are so far behind us." "You might be surprised about that. By Lev Grossman Forgiven Surprised

Maybe she was crazy, but she wasn't stupid. She'd seen Terminator 2. She wasn't going out like Sarah Connor. By Lev Grossman Crazy Stupid Terminator Connor Sarah

With the caveat that it is much more difficult and much more dangerous and much more interesting to be a magician than it is to be a carpenter. By Lev Grossman Carpenter Caveat Difficult Dangerous Interesting

Something must be going on deep in his subconscious, he thought, some kind of redecoration, refurbishment, reupholstering that required a lot of downtime - some shadowy application running in the background, performing unknown operations, consuming huge chunks of psychic ram. By Lev Grossman Refurbishment Subconscious Thought Redecoration Reupholstering

She was the most beautiful, terrible thing he'd ever seen, like an acetylene flame, an incandescent filament, a fallen star right in front of him. By Lev Grossman Beautiful Terrible Flame Filament Thing

Welcome to Facelessbook: an antisocial network. By Lev Grossman Facelessbook Network Antisocial

Now he knew his way around a ward-and-shield or two. He could chuck a magic missile with the best of them. He was a damn one-man magic-missile crisis. By Lev Grossman Knew Crisis Chuck Magic Missile

Supposedly the Thames dragon wrote most of Pink Floyd's stuff. At least after Syd Barrett left. But there's no way to prove it. By Lev Grossman Thames Pink Floyd Supposedly Stuff

That guy was a mystery wrapped in an enigma and crudely stapled to a ticking fucking time bomb. He was either going to hit somebody or start a blog. To tell you the truth I'm kind of glad he hit you. By Lev Grossman Bomb Guy Mystery Wrapped Enigma

When he saw Julia, he searched himself for the old love he used to feel for her. It wasn't gone, but it was a dull, distant ache, still there but healed over just the shrapnel they couldn't remove. By Lev Grossman Julia Searched Love Feel Dull

Do you know, I had almost lost faith in the goddess? I almost stopped believing in Her. But I realized I had to become something. I had to take what was done to me and use it to make myself into what I wanted to be. And I wanted this. And when I called Her, the goddess came. By Lev Grossman Lost Faith Goddess Wanted Stopped

Which is the healthier kind of literary diversity: an un-gate-kept self-published book world, run substantially through Amazon? Or our current book world, which is part-gate-kept, part-not, with many different publishers and retailers and platforms? I'm not smart enough to figure it out, but if I had to guess I'd guess the latter. By Lev Grossman Amazon World Diversity Selfpublished Run

Her depressive tendency, the flip side of her manic streak, was stirring. Why were they even doing this? it wanted to know. What a waste of time, of effort. Of pencils. Plum needed to get moving, but she was having trouble attaching meanings to things; the meanings kept peeling off like old stickers. By Lev Grossman Tendency Streak Stirring Depressive Flip

For all that it was a party at Maude Chatwin's house, it was also just a party like any other party. There were pretty people and unpretty people, drunk people and undrunk people, people who didn't care what anybody thought about them and people standing in corners afraid to open their mouths lest somebody look directly at them. By Lev Grossman Party Maude Chatwin People House

Wishes are for children," Jane Chatwin said. "I grew up. By Lev Grossman Jane Chatwin Wishes Children Grew

The librarian thought the problem was just that the right books weren't breeding with each other and proposed a forced mating program. The library committee had an epic secret meeting about the ethics of literary eugenics which ended in a furious deadlock. By Lev Grossman Program Librarian Thought Problem Books

There's a special gut-check moment the first time you write a scene in which somebody casts a spell. By Lev Grossman Spell Special Gutcheck Moment Time

The multiverse was his TGI Friday's. By Lev Grossman Friday Tgi Multiverse

All of human literature could just be a user's guide to the multiverse! By Lev Grossman Multiverse Human Literature User Guide

Josh speculated about the hypothetical contents of an imaginary porn magazine for intelligent trees that would be entitled Enthouse. By Lev Grossman Enthouse Josh Speculated Hypothetical Contents

Magic is wild, dangerous stuff. You never realize how useful limitations are until it's much too late. By Lev Grossman Magic Wild Dangerous Stuff Late

Now he had answers, but they weren't doing what answers were supposed to do: they weren't making things simpler or easier. They weren't helping. By Lev Grossman Answers Easier Supposed Making Things

It was the strangest thing, but he was looking forward to everything so much, he could hardly stand it. He never would have believed it. He never thought he would. "You know what?" He took Alice's hand. "Let's fly. By Lev Grossman Thing Strangest Forward Stand Alice

You hate yourself so much, you'll hurt anybody who loves you. That's it, isn't it? Just to get even with them for loving you. By Lev Grossman Hate Hurt Loves Loving

I find that if you're a good student, the teacher hardly matters. By Lev Grossman Student Matters Find Good Teacher

God, I hope we don't have to use that," was all he said out loud. "Oh, come on, Quentina. We're not looking for trouble. We just want to be ready if it comes." Josh could hardly contain himself. "Dungeons & Dragons, motherfucker! By Lev Grossman God Loud Quentina Hope Dungeons

He wasn't in a safe little story where wrongs were automatically righted; he was still in the real world, where bad bitter things happened for no reason, and people paid for things that weren't their fault. By Lev Grossman Righted World Reason Fault Things

I think you're magicians because you're unhappy. A magician is strong because he feels pain. He feels the difference between what the world is and what he would make of it. Or what did you think that stuff in your chest was? A magician is strong because he hurts more than others. His wound is his strength. "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 By Lev Grossman Unhappy Magician Pain Strong Feels

A magician is strong because he feels pain. He feels the difference between what the world is and what he would make of it. Or what did you think that stuff in your chest was? A magician is strong because he hurts more than others. His wound is his strength. By Lev Grossman Feels Pain Magician Strong Difference

He had reached the outer limits of what Fun, capital F, could do for him. The cost was way too high, the returns pitifully inadequate. By Lev Grossman Fun Capital Reached Outer Limits

The study of magic is not a science, it is not an art, and it is not a religion. Magic is a craft. When we do magic, we do not wish and we do not pray. We rely upon our will and our knowledge and our skill to make a specific change to the world. By Lev Grossman Magic Science Art Religion Study

Plover's words were like dried flowers, stiff and crumbling, crushed flat between pages, when we'd had the living, blooming blossoms all around By Lev Grossman Plover Flowers Stiff Crumbling Crushed

I'm happy to report that 'The New Press' is still in business to this day. But not thanks to me. I was a really bad publishing intern. By Lev Grossman Press Day Happy Report Business

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. By Lev Grossman Magic Make Fighting Words Universe

About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell ... I defy anybody to read the first page and not keep going to the last. By Lev Grossman Thriller Searingly Smart Ridiculously Funny

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. By Lev Grossman Stop Life Secret Door Lead

Shit was getting geological, yo. By Lev Grossman Shit Geological

What have people ever done for me? People don't want my help. People called me a faggot and threw me in a Dumpster at recess when I was in fifth grade because my pants were pressed." "Well, By Lev Grossman People Dumpster Pressed Called Faggot

What surprised me about 'The Casual Vacancy' was not just how good it was, but the particular way in which it was good. By Lev Grossman Vacancy Casual Good Surprised

I mean, when you're tired of book reviews, you're tired of life. By Lev Grossman Tired Reviews Life Book

He wished he could tell him that none of it was going to turn out anything like the way he hoped, but that everything was going to be all right anyway. It was hard to explain, but he would see. By Lev Grossman Hoped Wished Turn Explain Hard

I killed the Google Alert I used to have on myself two years ago. I don't need any more information about myself. I get more than enough of that just by being me. By Lev Grossman Google Alert Ago Killed Years

He only had time to feel all the tenderness he had ever felt for her surge up in one infinitely concentrated instant - and to be surprised that it was all still there, moist and intact beneath the unsightly scorched layer of his anger... By Lev Grossman Instant Moist Anger Time Feel

It was so much easier to be angry. Being angry made him feel strong, even though and this contradiction did nothing to diminish his anger he was angry only because his position was so weak. By Lev Grossman Angry Easier Strong Weak Made

The quietness of it was weird: real fights happened without a sound track. By Lev Grossman Weird Real Track Quietness Fights

But perfection is a nervy business, because the moment you spot the tiniest flaw it's ruined. By Lev Grossman Business Ruined Perfection Nervy Moment

At the top end you had some fairies squeeing at supersonic pitches; fairies thought all this military stuff was pretty silly, but they went along with it for the same reason that fairies ever did anything, namely, for the lulz. By Lev Grossman Fairies Pitches Silly Lulz Top

I read Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I think will subsequently be recognized as one of the first great novels of the 21st century. By Lev Grossman Century Strange Norrell Susanna Clarke

By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself should be doing, and he wasn't doing it. By Lev Grossman Learned Annoyed

And Quentin had never known how the Maze was redrawn over the summer, but apparently every year in June the groundskeeper goaded the topiary animals into such a feeding frenzy that they fell upon and devoured each other in a kind of ghastly slow-motion vegetarian holocaust. By Lev Grossman Quentin Maze June Summer Holocaust

Oddly, the meanings of books are defined for me much more by their beginnings and middles than they are by their endings. By Lev Grossman Oddly Endings Meanings Books Defined

Growing up in the '70s and '80s, science fiction and especially fantasy had such a stigma attached to them. I felt so punished and exiled for being devoted to these things. By Lev Grossman Growing Science Fiction Fantasy Stigma

You didn't get the quest you wanted, you got the one you could do. By Lev Grossman Wanted Quest

It was too easy, and he'd had enough of doing things the easy way. By Lev Grossman Easy Things

With the traditional Australian's indifference to personal dryness and venomous underwater predators, she dived right in. By Lev Grossman Australian Predators Traditional Indifference Personal

But you know how there's a certain kind of person - and it's different for everyone - but suddenly when you see them your eye just snags on them, you get caught and you can't look away, and you're ten times more awake than you were a moment ago, and it's like you're a harp string and somebody just plucked you? By Lev Grossman Person Ago Kind Suddenly Eye

Nothing is wrong with you. You're not different. Everybody feels as bad as you do: this is just what writing a novel feels like. To write a novel is to come in contact with raw, primal feelings, hopes and longings and psychic wounds, and try to make a big public word-sculpture out of them, and that is a crazy hard thing to do. By Lev Grossman Wrong Feels Raw Primal Feelings

But being in the middle of it, it wasn't that obvious. By Lev Grossman Obvious Middle

It's true," Eliot said. "Statistically, historically, and however else you want to look at it, you are almost never right. A monkey making life decisions based on its horoscope in USA Today would be right more often than you. But in this case, yes, you were right. Don't spoil it. By Lev Grossman Eliot True Statistically Historically Usa

I used to write in a local coffee shop, but there was another guy, another writer, who kept sitting in my favorite seat. I would show up, and he would be there, and I would get exiled to a couch or something, and it would throw me off my game. By Lev Grossman Shop Guy Writer Seat Write

Literature interprets the world, but it's also shaped by that world, and we're living through one of the greatest economic and technological transformations sincewell, since the early 18th century. The novel won't stay the same: it has always been exquisitely sensitive to newness, hence the name. It's about to renew itself again, into something cheaper, wilder, trashier, more democratic and more deliriously fertile than ever. By Lev Grossman World Century Literature Sincewell Early

You're cramming a few chance data points into a story that has nothing to do with reality. You need to take a giant step back. Take a deep breath. You're way off the reservation." Nobody By Lev Grossman Reality Cramming Chance Data Points

The life I should be living had been mislaid through some clerical error by the cosmic bureaucracy. By Lev Grossman Bureaucracy Life Living Mislaid Clerical

He'd been right about the world, but he was wrong about himself. The word was a desert, but he was a magician, and to be a magician was to be a secret spring - a moving oasis. He wasn't desolate, and he wasn't empty. He was full of emotion, full of feelings, bursting with them, and when it came down to it, that's what being a magician was. They weren't ordinary feelings - they weren't the tame, domesticated kind. Magic was wild feelings, the kind that escaped out of you and into the world and changed things. There was a lot of skill to it, and a lot of learning, and a lot of work, but that was where the power began: the power to enchant the world. By Lev Grossman Magician Feelings Lot World Wrong

Though the funny thing about never being asked for anything is that after a while you start to feel like maybe you don't have anything worth giving. By Lev Grossman Giving Funny Thing Asked Start

Young minds - young brains - need stories and ideas like the ones in those [censored and banned] books in order to grow. They need ideas that you disagree with. They need ideas that I disagree with. Or they'll never be able to figure out what ideas they believe in. By Lev Grossman Young Ideas Minds Brains Censored

It was hard not to envy her. A phantom toll-booth, or a chariot of fire, probably. Drawn by thestrals. By Lev Grossman Hard Envy Tollbooth Fire Drawn

Quentin was thin and tall, though he habitually hunched his shoulders in a vain attempt to brace himself against whatever blow was coming from the heavens, and which would logically hit the tall people first. By Lev Grossman Quentin Heavens Tall Thin Habitually

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. ' By Lev Grossman Brooks Reading Plot Peter Read

He had an air of magnificent melancholy sophistication, as if his proper place were elsewhere, somewhere infinitely more compelling even than Brakebills, and he'd been confined to his present setting by a grotesque divine oversight, which he tolerated with as much good humor as could be expected. By Lev Grossman Brakebills Sophistication Oversight Expected Air

Quentin hadn't planned on spending the rest of his afternoon - or morning, or whatever this was - taking a standardized test on an unknown subject, at an unknown educational institution, in some unknown alternate climatic zone where it was still summer. By Lev Grossman Unknown Quentin Afternoon Morning Taking

She was a person with her own hopes and feelings and history and nightmares. In her own way she was as lost as he was. By Lev Grossman Nightmares Person Hopes Feelings History

You cannot study magic. You cannot learn it. You must ingest it. Digest it. You must merge with it. And it with you. By Lev Grossman Magic Study Learn Digest Ingest

You don't have to do anything. This is what you don't understand! You don't know any older magicians except our professors. It's a wasteland out there. Out here. You can do nothing or anything or everything, and none of it matters. You have to find something to really care about to keep from running totally off the rails. A lot of magicians never find it. By Lev Grossman Magicians Find Understand Professors Older

He looked like a child who had been slightly misdelivered, with some subpar forceps handling by the attending. By Lev Grossman Misdelivered Attending Looked Child Slightly

That was one thing about books: once you read them they couldn't be unread. By Lev Grossman Books Unread Thing Read

It turns out you can go home again, if you have to. By Lev Grossman Turns Home

You need to do more than memorize, Quentin. You must learn the principles of magic with more than your head. You must learn them with your bones, with your blood, your liver, your heart, your deek. He grabbed his crotch through his dressing gown and gave it a shake. By Lev Grossman Quentin Memorize Learn Head Principles

It was ending too soon, the way everything did, everything except Ebola viruses and really bad people like psychopaths. Those things never ended. By Lev Grossman Ebola Psychopaths Ending Viruses Bad

A big silvery janitor. Penny, this can't be how the universe works." "In the Order we call it 'inverse profundity.' We've observed it in any number of cases. The deeper you go into the cosmic mysteries, the less interesting everything gets. By Lev Grossman Janitor Big Silvery Penny Order

Are you kidding? That guy was a mystery wrapped in an enigma and crudely stapled to a ticking fucking time bomb. He was either going to hit somebody or start a blog. By Lev Grossman Kidding Bomb Blog Guy Mystery

Never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink," he said. "Though I guess that presupposes that there is a wine I wouldn't drink. By Lev Grossman Drink Wine Cook Guess Presupposes

Death was an existential catastrophe, a rip in the soft upholstery with which humanity padded over a hard uncaring universe, but it turned out there were an amazing number of people whose job it was to deal with it for you, and all they asked in return were huge quantities of time and money. By Lev Grossman Death Catastrophe Universe Money Existential

Hate isn't like love, it doesn't end. It goes on forever. You can never get to the bottom of it. And it's so pure, so unconditional! By Lev Grossman Hate Love End Forever Pure

Life was briskly and efficiently stripping Quentin of his last delusions about himself, one by one, shucking them off in firm hard jerks like wet clothes, leaving him naked and shivering. By Lev Grossman Quentin Life Shucking Clothes Leaving

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. By Lev Grossman Bingewriter Words Kind Carve Hours

I read obsessively when I'm writing. I think there are two kinds of fiction writers, those who read incessantly while they write and those who can't read at all, lest their individual voices get overwhelmed, or tainted somehow. I'm the first kind. To use a painfully precious metaphor, I need fixed stars to navigate by, otherwise I get lost in the blankness of the page. By Lev Grossman Read Writing Obsessively Writers Overwhelmed

More than fantasy or even science fiction, Ray Bradbury wrote horror, and like so many great horror writers he was himself utterly without fear, of anything. He wasn't afraid of looking uncool - he wasn't scared to openly love innocence, or to be optimistic, or to write sentimentally when he felt that way. By Lev Grossman Ray Bradbury Horror Fiction Fear

We had problems, but we could have fixed them. But that was too easy for you. It might actually have worked, and then where would you be? You would have been stuck with me forever, By Lev Grossman Problems Fixed Worked Easy Forever

He had a goatee that was maybe growing into something that was more than a goatee, which made him look like an angry barista at an indie coffee shop whose dreams of becoming a successful screenwriter were dwindling by the hour. By Lev Grossman Goatee Hour Growing Made Angry

Until then he'd worked hard, but he got in his share of malingering like everybody else. By Lev Grossman Hard Worked Share Malingering

By the standards of magical society they'd fallen at the first hurdle: they hadn't had the basic good sense to keep their shit to themselves. By Lev Grossman Hurdle Standards Magical Society Fallen

But it is easier to destroy than to create, and there are those whose nature it is to love destruction. By Lev Grossman Create Destruction Easier Destroy Nature

Wands out, Harry. By Lev Grossman Harry Wands

We hunt the White Stag, like Quentin did. We catch it or shoot it or whatever you do with it. We get three wishes. We wish Fillory would last forever and not die. Done. Mischief managed." Eliot By Lev Grossman Stag White Quentin Hunt Fillory

He had painstakingly assembled all the ingredients of happiness. He had performed all the necessary rituals, spoken the words, lit the candles, made the sacrifices. But happiness, like a disobedient spirit, refused to come. He couldn't think what else to do. He By Lev Grossman Happiness Painstakingly Assembled Ingredients Rituals

She had never expected anything special to just happen to her. Her plan for life was to get out there and make special things happen, which was a much more sensible plan from a probability point of view. By Lev Grossman Special Happen Expected Plan View

In any case, we do not and cannot understand what magic is, or where it comes from, any more than a carpenter understands why a tree grows. He doesn't have to. He works with what he has. By Lev Grossman Case Grows Magic Carpenter Tree

Nothing happened, then broke Poppys hand the smoth surface like the Lady in the lake, except thst the hand, instead of holding a magical sword, in this case only did a big, entusiastic thumb up-sign By Lev Grossman Poppys Lady Hand Happened Lake

The process of learning is a nonstop orgy of wonderment. By Lev Grossman Wonderment Process Learning Nonstop Orgy

Quentin did a magic trick. Nobody noticed. They picked their way along the cold, uneven sidewalk together: James, Julia, and Quentin. James and Julia held hands. That's how things were now. The sidewalk wasn't quite wide enough, so Quentin trailed after them, like a sulky child. He would rather have been alone with Julia, or just alone period, but you couldn't have everything. Or at least the available evidence pointed overwhelmingly to that conclusion. By Lev Grossman Julia Quentin James Trick Magic

Eliot, I love you like the brother I never had or wanted, By Lev Grossman Eliot Wanted Love Brother

You don't want to move toward some utopian literary situation where everybody's free of all conventions. That's ridiculous! Conventions are what you need. You have nothing to break down if you don't have conventions. By Lev Grossman Conventions Move Utopian Literary Situation

Even on the first day we invaded Plover's house we sensed the conundrum that Americans are faced with in England: they're too frightened of English people to behave rudely to them, and too ignorant to know how to behave politely. By Lev Grossman England Behave Plover Americans English

He was obviously one of those people who felt at home in the world-he was naturally buoyant, where Quentin felt like he had to dog-paddle constantly, exhaustingly,humiliatingly, just to get one sip of air. By Lev Grossman Exhaustinglyhumiliatingly Quentin Buoyant Constantly Air

Once in a while an entire sub-sub-category that had long been thought safely dormant would take wing with an indescribable papery susurrus. By Lev Grossman Entire Susurrus Long Thought Safely

Every hangover feels like the worst hangover you've ever had, but this one was definitely a classic. One for the ages. He felt like all the water had been forcibly sucked out of his body, like an apricot in a dehydration chamber, and replaced with venom from an angry adder. By Lev Grossman Hangover Classic Feels Worst Ages

I came from an anxious, overly intense East Coast academic family. That was the way of our tribe. By Lev Grossman East Coast Anxious Overly Family

Wasn't there a spell for making yourself happy? Somebody must have invented one. How could he have missed it? Why didn't they teach it? Was it in the library, a flying book fluttering just out of reach, beating its wings against some high window? By Lev Grossman Happy Spell Making Invented Library

The danger would be going back, or staying still. The only way out was through. The past was ruins, but the present was still in play. By Lev Grossman Back Danger Staying Ruins Play

It seems to me that the novel as a medium has a very low signal-to-noise ratio. By which I mean: there are a lot of novels published, but the vast majority of them don't represent major contributions to the medium. By Lev Grossman Ratio Low Medium Published Lot

Look, who's the talking bear here?" Quentin snapped. "Is it you? Are you the talking fucking bear? All right. So shut the fuck up. By Lev Grossman Talking Bear Quentin Snapped Fucking

They spent the rest of that afternoon together. Maybe he felt guilty for giving Quentin the cigarette, or maybe Eliot had decided that the tedium of solitude was ever so slightly greater than the tedium of Quentin's company. Maybe he just needed a straight man. He By Lev Grossman Quentin Tedium Spent Rest Afternoon

Tomorrow I'll take you out to see the gold beetles. They're amazing: they eat dirt and poop out gold ore. By Lev Grossman Tomorrow Beetles Gold Amazing Ore

The year since then had been peaceful and prosperous, and in some ways the mood was lighter in the castle with Josh and Poppy installed as King and Queen in place of Quentin and Julia, Fillory's brooders-in-chief. By Lev Grossman Fillory Julia Josh Poppy King

You sound just like my parents. That is just exactly what my ignorant Christian parents would say. Just, if it doesn't fit with your theory, well, that's just because, oh, it actually does, but God is mysterious, so we can't see it. Because we're so sinful. That's so fucking easy. By Lev Grossman Parents Sound Christian God Ignorant

I was perfectly happy where I was, deliquescing, atom by atom, amid a riot of luxury. By Lev Grossman Deliquescing Amid Luxury Atom Perfectly

His first two months at Brakebills spun by, and soon red and gold leaves were scattering across the Sea, as if they were being pushed by invisible brooms - which possibly they were? - and the flanks of the slow-moving topiary beasts in the Maze showed streaks of color. Quentin By Lev Grossman Sea Brakebills Brooms Months Spun

If you please, Admiral, don't be a cock. I'll know it when I see it, and if, for some reason, I don't, you tell me, alright? Admiral Lacker inclined his head almost imperceptibly to indicate that they had a deal. He would endeavor to be as little of a cock as possible. By Lev Grossman Admiral Cock Alright Lacker Reason

He's so happy," Eliot said dryly. "It's like he cooked something and it came out looking like the picture in the cookbook. By Lev Grossman Eliot Happy Dryly Cookbook Cooked

he'd fantasized about having nothing to do except lie on his bed and sleep and stare into space, but now those empty hours were here, and they were getting old amazingly fast. By Lev Grossman Space Fast Fantasized Lie Bed

When it comes to true humility in the face of history, nothing beats complete silence. By Lev Grossman History Silence True Humility Face

She considered herself too smart to believe in things she had no evidence for, and that behaved in ways that violated every principle she'd ever observed or heard plausibly spoken about. And she considered herself too tough-minded to believe in things just because they made her feel better. By Lev Grossman Considered Things Smart Evidence Behaved

Hating a book is not unlike hating a person; in fact it's tempting to just go ahead and hate the author personally, by proxy, qua human being, except that I know that would be a mistake. By Lev Grossman Hating Person Personally Proxy Qua

I ought to at least be able to read literature in French. I went to an enlightened grade school that started us on French in fifth grade, which meant that by the time I graduated high school I had been at it for eight years. By Lev Grossman French Read Literature Grade School

The silver years of the Chatwins are long ago now, and the years since have been forged from baser metals. You By Lev Grossman Chatwins Years Metals Silver Long

For a long time Eliot had had the theory that in Janet's mind everybody was as judgmental of her as she was of them, and if that was true then the world must be a pretty scary place for her. By Lev Grossman Eliot Janet Long Time Theory

Labyrinths were old sorcery, and subtle: good for recharging one's magical resources when they were running low. By Lev Grossman Labyrinths Sorcery Subtle Good Low

But it wasn't going to kill him. It wasn't sexy, but it was real, and that was what mattered now. No more fantasies - that was life after Fillory. By Lev Grossman Kill Fillory Sexy Real Mattered

Loosening his tie with one hand, Quentin stepped out into the cold clear winter air and flew. By Lev Grossman Quentin Loosening Hand Flew Tie

To live out childhood fantasies as a grown-up was to court and wed and bed disaster. By Lev Grossman Disaster Live Childhood Fantasies Grownup

Being a hero, the man had observed, is largely a matter of knowing one's cues. By Lev Grossman Hero Observed Cues Man Largely

She hadn't even known they were volcanic, but now they were lobbing big seminal gobbets of lava all over their lower slopes, like a drunk prom queen puking on her dress. Shit was getting geological, yo. By Lev Grossman Volcanic Slopes Dress Lobbing Big

Quentin's conversations with his parents were so circular and self-defeating, they sounded like experimental theater. By Lev Grossman Quentin Selfdefeating Theater Conversations Parents

Janet was in charge of relations with foreign powers - Quentin called her Fillory Clinton. By Lev Grossman Quentin Clinton Fillory Janet Powers

Magic, Quentin discovered, wasn't romantic at all. It was grim and repetitive and deceptive. And he worked his ass off and became very good at it. By Lev Grossman Quentin Magic Discovered Romantic Deceptive

In case of Ragnarok break glass and play an E flat. Where's By Lev Grossman Ragnarok Flat Case Break Glass

Vile Father's brown nipples, on the ends of his pendulous man-cans, were like dried figs. By Lev Grossman Father Vile Nipples Mancans Figs

Wait a minute," Quentin said. "Who or what is the Thames dragon?" "The Thames dragon," Eliot said. "You know. The dragon who lives in the Thames. By Lev Grossman Quentin Thames Dragon Wait Minute

Lots of people say they've talked to dragons, but it's very hard to verify. Supposedly the Thames dragon wrote most of Pink Floyd's stuff. At least after By Lev Grossman Lots Verify People Talked Hard

The others were conspicuously silent, or talked among themselves, elaborately play-acting that they were unaware of the fact that Quentin was conversing with a drunk magic bear. By Lev Grossman Quentin Silent Elaborately Bear Conspicuously

This was bad behavior, and she knew it. She did it because she was angry and because she disliked herself. The more she disliked herself, the more she took it out on other people, and the more she took it out on other people the more she disliked herself By Lev Grossman Disliked Behavior Bad Knew People

Earth or Fillory, did it even matter? What was the huge conundrum? Everywhere you looked there was so much richness, you could never exhaust it. By Lev Grossman Fillory Earth Matter Conundrum Richness

Her white fox fur was coarse and smooth at the same time, and she made little yipping snarls every time he pushed himself deeper inside her. He never wanted to stop. By Lev Grossman Time White Fox Fur Coarse

He wanted to stick his finger in it and see what happened. Some story, some quest, started here, and he wanted to go on it. It felt fresh and clean and unsafe, nothing like the heavy warm lard of palace life. The protective plastic wrap had been peeled off By Lev Grossman Wanted Happened Stick Finger Story

Julia would do anything to make the time pass. She killed time, murdered it, massacred it and hid the bodies. She threw her days in bunches onto the bonfire with both hands and watched them go up in fragrant smoke. It wasn't easy. Sometimes it felt like the hours had ground to a halt. They fought her as they passed, one after the other, like stubborn stools. By Lev Grossman Julia Pass Time Make Murdered

But not even the end of the world was going to stop Janet from being a bitch. It was the principle of the thing. By Lev Grossman Janet Bitch End World Stop

The main advantage of being a reviewer is that you read a lot. A lot of books get sent to you, and you have an amazing vantage point from which to observe what's going on in contemporary fiction - not only genre stuff, the whole spectrum. By Lev Grossman Lot Main Advantage Reviewer Read

Give a nerd enough time and a door he can close and he can figure out pretty much anything. By Lev Grossman Give Nerd Time Door Close

She was too tired to feel anything more, she wanted a book to do to her what books did: take away the world, slide it aside for a little bit, and let her please, please just be somewhere and somebody else By Lev Grossman World Slide Bit Tired Feel

He hit terminal velocity and kept accelerating, By Lev Grossman Accelerating Hit Terminal Velocity

Most people are blind to magic. They move through a blank and empty world. They're bored with their lives, and there's nothing they can do about it. They're eaten alive by longing, and they're dead before they die. By Lev Grossman Magic People Blind World Move

You just had to get some idea of what matters and what doesn't, and how much, and try not to be scared of the stuff that doesn't. Put it in perspective. By Lev Grossman Idea Matters Scared Stuff Put

I feel that's one of the central questions of fantasy. What did we lose when we entered the 20th and 21st century, and how can we mourn what we lost, and what can we replace it with? We're still asking those questions in an urgent way. By Lev Grossman Fantasy Feel Central Questions Century

That was the thing about the world: it wasn't that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways that you didn't expect. By Lev Grossman World Expect Harder Thought Hard

Not that she was a know-it-all - it didn't seem to be an ego thing with her. She just assumed that everybody shared her desire for everybody to be clear on everything, and she'd expect you to do the same for her. By Lev Grossman Ego Thing Assumed Shared Desire

If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so. By Lev Grossman Single Lesson Life Teaches Wishing

It was a worrying trend. Everybody else was deep into their own stories, and all the stories were woven together just beneath the surface into a web that included Plum. But what was Plum's story? By Lev Grossman Trend Plum Worrying Stories Story

The year after I graduated college I had a job in a library. When people underlined passages in the library books, or made notes in the margins, the books were sent to me. I erased the lines and the notes. Yes, that was my job. By Lev Grossman Library Year Graduated College Books

When I left college I thought - based on a staggeringly inadequate understanding of how the world worked - that I might like to go into book publishing. By Lev Grossman Thought Based Worked Publishing Left

I think every fantasy reader secretly believes they know how magic works. By Lev Grossman Works Fantasy Reader Secretly Magic

What's the fastest migratory bird on Earth?" "An airplane. By Lev Grossman Earth Fastest Migratory Bird Airplane

It was Italy after all. People probably hit each other all the time. By Lev Grossman Italy People Time Hit

Nothing made you look like more of a dick than standing there trying to find the end of your scabbard with the tip of your sword. By Lev Grossman Sword Made Dick Standing Find

Everything will be all right, She seemed to say, and whatever is not, we will mourn. By Lev Grossman Mourn

Hello," he said, not missing a beat. "Glad you could make it. Alice, I understand you burned our door in half.""Quentin helped. By Lev Grossman Beat Glad Missing Alice Quentin

She strode the earth clad in the invisible armor of their virtual companionship. By Lev Grossman Companionship Strode Earth Clad Invisible

The hero pays the price. By Lev Grossman Price Hero Pays

The smell of life." "The smell of farts. By Lev Grossman Smell Life Farts

They were where he went when he couldn't deal with the real world, which was a lot. By Lev Grossman World Lot Deal Real

You. Killed. A. Hermit. You. Weird. Sweaty. Bastard! By Lev Grossman Killed Hermit Weird Sweaty Bastard

That got some appreciative laughter, though he wasn't joking, and the bird didn't laugh. It didn't answer him either. Quentin couldn't read its face; like all birds, it had only one expression. By Lev Grossman Laughter Joking Laugh Appreciative Bird

The real world is horrible. By Lev Grossman Horrible Real World

Plum guessed it stood to reason that out of all these billions of books at least one of them had to be dragon porn. By Lev Grossman Plum Porn Guessed Stood Reason

Call the right axe Sorrow," she said. "You know what I call the left one?" "Happiness?" "Sorrow. I can't tell them apart. By Lev Grossman Sorrow Happiness Call Axe Left

We found some of them. It was always either a fight By Lev Grossman Found Fight

Afterward she took the tree aside and conferred with it privately. By Lev Grossman Afterward Privately Tree Conferred

If there was any magic in this world that was not magic, it was wine. By Lev Grossman Wine Magic World

Worst away team ever," Josh said, wading up onto land. "Not a single redshirt. By Lev Grossman Josh Worst Wading Land Team

He would lose whatever he had to lose, if that's what it took to win. By Lev Grossman Win Lose

The truth doesn't always make a good story, does it? By Lev Grossman Story Truth Make Good

It was summer again, and the summer nights smelled like murdered grass and sounded like crickets fucking. By Lev Grossman Fucking Summer Nights Smelled Murdered

Alone in his room, he smiled at his secret greatness. By Lev Grossman Room Greatness Smiled Secret

We need to get some fauns up in this piece. By Lev Grossman Piece Fauns

The flaming ruins of a five-alarm sunset smoldered in the window behind her, which was currently pointing west. "It By Lev Grossman West Flaming Ruins Fivealarm Sunset

I'll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book. - William Shakespeare, The Tempest By Lev Grossman Bury Staff Earth Book William

We among all animals were cursed with a longing for somewhere better, somewhere that never existed and never would. By Lev Grossman Animals Cursed Longing Existed

The higher you get the more you realize how much bigger than you everything By Lev Grossman Higher Realize Bigger

That's how you roll when you're a secret teenage magician By Lev Grossman Magician Roll Secret Teenage

He felt like a green-as-grass PFC from Dubuque, Iowa, trading banter with the hardened South Vietnamese regular attached to his unit. "So, By Lev Grossman Iowa Pfc Dubuque South Vietnamese

More lies. But what could you do? That's how you roll when you're a teenage magician! By Lev Grossman Lies Magician Roll Teenage

It was a shock to see them go, By Lev Grossman Shock

When he watched TV, all he saw was an image of his own face, with a mysterious empty city in the background. By Lev Grossman Face Background Watched Image Mysterious

We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler. By Lev Grossman Ruler Reached Point Ignorance Neglect

I started thinking about the endings of novels not because I think endings are so important, but because I think they're actually not as important as they're sometimes given credit for. By Lev Grossman Endings Important Started Thinking Credit

We have lived too long. The great days are past. By Lev Grossman Long Lived Past Great Days

Read everything. If you haven't read everything, you'll never be able to write anything. By Lev Grossman Read Write

I don't know how to phrase this exactly but what the fuck? By Lev Grossman Fuck Phrase

She was smart enough to know whose problem that was, and it wasn't hers. By Lev Grossman Smart Problem

It's a great thing when you feel that you recognize yourself, deeply and movingly, in a work of literature. By Lev Grossman Deeply Movingly Literature Great Thing

You're all so obsessed with other worlds, you're so convinced that this one is crap and everywhere else is great, but you've never bothered to figure out what's going on here! By Lev Grossman Worlds Great Obsessed Convinced Crap

Maybe when you give up your dreams, you find out that there's more to life than dreaming. By Lev Grossman Dreams Dreaming Give Find Life

He was experimenting cautiously with the idea of being happy, dipping an uncertain toe into those intoxicatingly carbonated waters. By Lev Grossman Happy Dipping Waters Experimenting Cautiously

What about Josh?" he croaked. "Go ask him." "He's got another project." Janet rolled her eyes. "He thinks he can use the Neitherlands to get to Middle-earth. He honestly believes he's going to bone an elf." "I By Lev Grossman Josh Croaked Middleearth Neitherlands Project

quieter and more intense By Lev Grossman Quieter Intense

Careful what you hunt, lest you catch it. By Lev Grossman