Mercedes Lackey

“[Harrier] locked eyes with Zanattar. He couldn't remember another time in his life when he'd been this angry and hadn't hit something.”

“The freedom to swing your fist ends at my nose.”

“If there are going to be people out there making war on other people, don't you think it's a good idea for some of those people to at least follow a code of ethics? Not 'honor' but something you can pin down and be sure of, something with the same rules for everybody.”

“I always work from an outline, so I know all the of the broad events and some of the finer details before I begin writing the book.”

“Give your enemy a face, If he is human, do not dehumanize him. Know him and know why he is your enemy. If your enemy is within you, understand what it is and why you are afraid. Put a face on your fear. When you understand it, and it is no longer vague and shapeless, you will find that your fear is no longer so formidable.”

“Certainly no one has ever died of an unrequited passion—it's usually the ones that are requited that get people in trouble.”

“I think canceling a game that is making a profit, along with destroying jobs and an online community, is entirely unethical.”

“The fastest I've ever done a book is a 112,000-word book in about a month.”

“To treat a person like a carpet, it is necessary that one do the walking, and one allow himself to be walked on.--Shin'a'in saying”

“(From the Author Note at the beginning of the book.) Dorothy L. Sayers used to say that mystery stories were the only moral fiction of the modern world--because in a mystery, you were guaranteed to see that the bad got punished, the good got rewarded and in the end all was made”

“I try to use all of my senses when describing a setting, and try to think of everything that would impact a character in any given scene.”