Patricia C. Wrede

“Well,” said the frog, “what are you going to do about it?”“Marrying Therandil? I don’t know. I’ve tried talking to my parents, but they won’t listen, and neither will Therandil.”“I didn’t ask what you’d said about it,” the frog snapped. “I asked what you’re going to do. Nine times out of ten, talking is a way of avoiding doing things.”

“Humility is as good for the soul as it is for the memory”

“Sometimes, though, you have to do things for family, even if you'd rather not.”

“Tell the story you want to tell, and let it be as long as it needs to be. Worry about marketing it later.”

“Kim was more than a little inclined to snarl at him, but in the past few days she had learned that snarling at Mairelon did little good. He simply smiled and corrected her grammar.”

“Then they gave me a loaf of bread and told me to walk through the forest and give some to anyone who asked. I did exactly what they told me, and the second beggar-woman was a fairy in disguise, but instead of saying that whenever I spoke, diamonds and roses would drop from my mouth, she said that since I was so kind, I would never have any problems with my teeth.”“Really? Did it work?”“Well, I haven’t had a toothache since I met her.”“I’d much rather have good teeth than have diamonds and roses drop out of my mouth whenever I said something”

“One of the things everybody seems to want to ask writers is, "Where do you get your ideas?" When people ask me this, my usual response is, "Ideas are the easy part. The hard part is writing them down.”

“Thank God!" he said, and kissed her.Kissing Mairelon was much nicer than anything she had ever dared to imagine, despite the headache.”

“You can't force folks to have good sense, even if they're family. Maybe especially then.”

“I loved getting my M. B. A., and I really enjoyed being an accountant and financial analyst before I quit my day job twenty-five years ago to write full time. I just liked writing more…plus, I knew even then that as a full-time writer, I'd get plenty of chances to do business-type stuff, while as an accountant, I probably wouldn't get a lot of opportunities to write about dragons.”

“Oliver has stated many times his dislike of hearing advice from his younger sister, so it is his own fault if he has not got sense enough to see which way the wind is blowing.”

“Murphy is a writer's best friend, but you have to keep an eye on him, or he'll steal the silver.”

“Mendanbar took a deep breath. “You could stay here. At the castle, I mean. With me.” This wasn’t coming out at all the way he had wanted it to, but it was too late to stop now. He hurried on, “As Queen of the Enchanted Forest, if you think you would like that. I would.”“Would you, really?”“Yes,” Mendanbar said, looking down. “I love you, and—and—”“And you should have said that to begin with,” Cimorene interrupted, putting her arms around him.Mendanbar looked up, and the expression on her face made his heart begin to pound.“Just to be sure I have this right,” Cimorene went on with a blinding smile, “did you just ask me to marry you?”“Yes,” Mendanbar said. “At least, that’s what I meant.”“Good. I will.”Mendanbar tried to find something to say, but he was too happy to think. He leaned forward two inches and kissed Cimorene, and discovered that he didn’t need to say anything at all.”

“News of Daniel's disappearance does not alarm me as it might have done a week ago. Given recent events, very little alarms me as it might have done a week ago. I feel as if my supply of alarm has been exhausted, at least temporarily.”