Literary Fantasy Quotes

#1. I do not like postmodernism, postapocalyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism. I rarely respond to supposedly clever formal devices, multiple fonts, pictures where they shouldn't be - basically, gimmicks of any kind. I find literary fiction about the Holocaust or any other major world tragedy to be distasteful - nonfiction only, please. I do not like genre mash-ups à la the literary detective novel or the literary fantasy. Literary should be literary, and genre should be genre, and crossbreeding rarely results in anything satisfying. I do not like children's books, especially ones with orphans, and I prefer not to clutter my shelves with young adult. I do not like anything over four hundred pages or under one hundred fifty pages. I am repulsed by ghostwritten novels by reality television stars, celebrity picture books, sports memoirs, movie tie-in editions, novelty items, and - I imagine this goes without saying - vampires. #Quote by Gabrielle Zevin

#2. True siblings are bound together by far more essential things than blood, while more times than many blood isn't thicker than water. #Quote by Constantina Maud

#3. In black neighborhoods, everybody appreciated comedy about real life. In the white community, fantasy was funnier. I started looking for the jokes that were equally hilarious across the board, for totally different reasons. #Quote by Will Smith

#4. Comparisons get you nowhere. They only make you ashamed of what you should be grateful for. #Quote by Sarah K.L. Wilson

#5. Beautiful prose is a floundering fish if it doesn't have a story to swim in. #Quote by Kevin Ansbro

#6. Death cannot be fooled or bought. Best be gone than left to rot. #Quote by Rachel Menard

#7. Those who dislike fantasy are very often equally bored or repelled by science. They don't like either hobbits, or quasars; they don't feel at home with them; they don't want complexities, remoteness. If there is any such connection, I'll bet that it is basically an aesthetic one #Quote by Ursula K. Le Guin

#8. A novelist must wrestle with all mysteries and strangeness of life itself, and anyone who dies not wish to accept that grand, bone-chilling commission should write book reviews, editorials, or health-insurance policies instead. #Quote by Pat Conroy

#9. If you don't leave room for the unexpected to express itself in your life, you close yourself off from the possibility of miracles. #Quote by Robert Stikmanz

#10. Jessica DuLong's elegantly written "My River Chronicles" brings the past of the Hudson River into the vivid present, and carries forward the craft of literary non-fiction with grace and energy. #Quote by Gay Talese

#11. No publisher should ever express an opinion on the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide. I can quite understand how any ordinary critic would be strongly prejudiced against a work that was accompanied by a premature and unnecessary panegyric from the publisher. A publisher is simply a useful middle-man. It is not for him to anticipate the verdict of criticism. #Quote by Oscar Wilde

#12. I've done a lot of books with Asian antecedents to them - some of my fantasy novels have been that way, and certainly in the 'Battletech' universe, there's a lot of Asian culture in that. #Quote by Michael A. Stackpole

#13. Jumping Rabbits played against Stinky Frogs and the winner took on Purple Rats immediately after. Blazing Night had constructed ... #Quote by J.M.K. Walkow

#14. What is wrong with black? It's the perfect color. #Quote by V.E. Schwab

#15. Several shades of the color, cloudy, silvery shades, churn underneath the surface of his skin, making him look marbled, textured. It paints a barely believable portrait. Every feature on him works in harmony to create, well, a person. But he's unlike any person I've ever seen. #Quote by Chelsea Scott

#16. Hope was never meant to be
A future shared alone,
As life cannot be won or lost
It was never ours to own. #Quote by Frederic M. Perrin

#17. I don't just want a gripping story line. I shoot for the three dimensional literary Braille to a silent Scorsese movie #Quote by Carl Henegan

#18. I'm also old ... and my own gift for writing fantasy grows out of very literal-minded, pragmatic soil: the things I do when I'm not telling stories have always been pretty three-dimensional. I used to say that the only strong attraction reality ever had for me was horses and horseback riding, but I've also been cooking and going for long walks since I was a kid (yes, the two are related), and I'm getting even more three dimensionally biased as I get older - gardening, bell ringing ... piano playing ... And the stories I seem to need to write seem to need that kind of nourishment from me - how you feed your story telling varies from writer to writer. My story-telling faculty needs real-world fresh air and experiences that create calluses (and sometimes bruises). #Quote by Robin McKinley

#19. It is worth saying something about the social position of beggars, for when one has consorted with them, and found that they are ordinary human beings, one cannot help being struck by the curious attitude that society takes towards them. People seem to feel that there is some essential difference between beggars and ordinary 'working' men. They are a race apart--outcasts, like criminals and prostitutes. Working men 'work', beggars do not 'work'; they are parasites, worthless in their very nature. It is taken for granted that a beggar does not 'earn' his living, as a bricklayer or a literary critic 'earns' his. He is a mere social excrescence, tolerated because we live in a humane age, but essentially despicable.

Yet if one looks closely one sees that there is no ESSENTIAL difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people. Beggars do not work, it is said; but, then, what is WORK? A navvy works by swinging a pick. An accountant works by adding up figures. A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and getting varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course--but, then, many reputable trades are quite useless. And as a social type a beggar compares well with scores of others. He is honest compared with the sellers of most patent medicines, high-minded compared with a Sunday newspaper proprietor, amiable compared with a hire-purchase tout--in short, a parasite, but a fairly har #Quote by George Orwell

#20. Snow came back, but she didn't come back right. #Quote by Rob E. Boley

#21. He had no clue my wolf was ready to choose china patterns. #Quote by Lisa Kessler

#22. And once upon a time I wondered: Is writing epic fantasy not somehow a betrayal? Did I not somehow do a disservice to my own reality by paying so much attention to the power fantasies of disenchanted white men?

But. Epic fantasy is not merely what Tolkien made it.

This genre is rooted in the epic - and the truth is that there are plenty of epics out there which feature people like me. Sundiata's badass mother. Dihya, warrior queen of the Amazighs. The Rain Queens. The Mino Warriors. Hatshepsut's reign. Everything Harriet Tubman ever did. And more, so much more, just within the African components of my heritage. I haven't even begun to explore the non-African stuff. So given all these myths, all these examinations of the possible… how can I not imagine more? How can I not envision an epic set somewhere other than medieval England, about someone other than an awkward white boy? How can I not use every building-block of my history and heritage and imagination when I make shit up?

And how dare I disrespect that history, profane all my ancestors' suffering and struggles, by giving up the freedom to imagine that they've won for me. #Quote by N.K. Jemisin

#23. The Lord giveth and the world taketh away. #Quote by Maryann Austin

#24. Stop this dwelling on fantasy tragedies and disasters occurring unexpectedly. It is time wasted and leads to a dead end, such pursuits sap and waste energy. You tend to worry much too much over bad things occurring, events that may never happen. You can do this if you put your mind to it. Whenever those thoughts pop up, just give them a swift kick in the ass. #Quote by Anderson Cooper

#25. If you're not good, I'll burn your - "
"Yeah, I know." MeShack strolled to his bedroom. "You'll burn my balls off. #Quote by Kenya Wright

#26. Elves are wondrous fair to look upon. #Quote by J.R.R. Tolkien

#27. A love affair begins with a fantasy. For instance, that the beloved will always be there. #Quote by Amy Hempel

#28. A vicious monster came from nowhere and kicked the car sideways #Quote by J.M.K. Walkow

#29. The first stanza of Eyes In Moonlight Drown, a poem from DeadVerse.

With your face framed in a halo of stars,
your hair melts into trailing clouds,
and your eyes in moonlight drown.
A man could lose himself
in those freckled irises,
reflecting the galaxies above;
surely he could fall into their promise
of eternity, of Heaven, of love.
Your lips glisten, part, and beckon,
a smile of warm invitation,
a suggestion of sweet intensity,
a loss of self in addictive agony.
For we translate these aesthetics
into something mystical;
ideas of fantasy, of fiction,
obscuring the clinical truth
of chemical reactions,
electric sparks, responses
as sure as gravity,
measurable yet beyond cold,
above philosophy and below truth. #Quote by Scott Kaelen

#30. And even these ((the common hill fairy, the standard elf of folk-lore) are in danger of being banished into the limbo of forgetfulness by the quite artificial fairy of juvenile literary commerce, with gauzy wing and skirts reminiscent of the ballet. It has always seemed to me extraordinary that literature has been able to create wings where none were before, for our native fairies are as wingless as ourselves. But for such an innovation the Elizabethan poets and playwrights were probably responsible - a topic which we must consider in another chapter. #Quote by Lewis Spence

#31. I wish we would all just fall apart so I wouldn't have to listen to the downfall happen, so slowly, so painfully. #Quote by Hannah Moskowitz

#32. Leroy interrupted Chantal's fantasies: Freedom? As you live our your desolation, you can be either unhappy or happy. Having that choice is what constitutes your freedom. You're free to melt your own individuality into the cauldron of the multitude either with a feeling of defeat or euphoria. #Quote by Milan Kundera

#33. Literature destabilizes thought by breaking open language and smuggling in sound, rhythm, and image--an invasion of aesthetics. More easily than analytic writing, poetry can emancipate itself from the standard definitions of words, enabling a breakthrough to new (and perhaps wayward or even nonsensical) meaning, which can then develop after the fact--different at each new reading. Literary language is presumptuous. It dips into the unknown in order to get nearer to a truth different from that of the superficially visible. As the poet Franz Josef Czernin described it, it is as though one step after another into emptiness could become a ladder. Literary writing can take the writers themselves by surprise; it can disturb and disappoint them--for stirring up turmoil is inherent in metaphor. Thus with every flash of understanding that comes from hearing or reading a poem, the fundamental work of thinking is taken up anew. #Quote by Marie Luise Knott

#34. It shouldn't come as any surprise that those who choose acting as a profession are phonies who live in a fantasy world. What is surprising is how many of them are blissfully unaware of it. #Quote by Julie Burchill

#35. Oskar's lips are only a few inches away. "But I'm not scared of you."
The corner of his mouth curves up, and then he brushes his lips over mine. They're cool and soft and it's over way too soon. We stare at each other. "Can I do that again?" he whispers ... #Quote by Sarah Fine

#36. The truth is that I've spent all my life with my binoculars trained on the Maybe Islands, a pristine place of fantasy that is really no better than the razor-rocks of misery. Maybe if I had stayed on the farm ... maybe if I hadn't gone with Spike ... maybe if I could have lived more peaceably ... maybe if I'd met the right person years ago, maybe if I hadn't done this, or that or, its cousin, the other. Maybe, baby, the promised land was there and I missed it. Look at it glittering in the light. But the truth is I am inventing the maybe. I can only make the choices I make, so why torture myself with what I might have done, when all I can handle is what I have done. The Maybe Islands are hostile to human life. #Quote by Jeanette Winterson

#37. I'm sorry," I whispered. "I never wanted this for you. This life ... I knew it was going to kill me in the end. I wish you didn't have to be here when it finally caught up. #Quote by Julie Kagawa

#38. The enemy of her enemy was not necessarily her friend. #Quote by Thea Harrison

#39. Streaking through a large crowd has always been a secret fantasy of mine. #Quote by Rashida Jones

#40. Gabriel smiled and his thumb grazed her cheek. She thought for a terrifying moment that he was going to kiss her #Quote by A.J. Flowers

#41. The extermination of Poland's literary heritage was frighteningly efficient. Researchers have estimated that 70 percent of all books in Poland were destroyed or lost through plunder. Over 90 percent of collections belonging to public libraries or schools were lost or destroyed. #Quote by Anders Rydell

#42. The greatest happiness is a quiet kind. It's the tender understanding that we're living in a very strange place full of strange creatures. And there's quite a bit of wonder in that. #Quote by F.K. Preston

#43. She knew from her visions that she would be one of them, one of the chosen, set apart and marked for her mate. Unlike her, the other chosen women lived on earth, regenerated from the soul of a lost love, the most cherished of the heart, a Destoul. #Quote by Madison Thorne Grey

#44. She looked up at him with dark, tragic eyes, and again he was struck by the illusion of beauty and innocence she presented. Instinct had him wanting to reach for her, to take her in his arms and offer comfort. Then his ribs twitched with pain and he remembered she was not all that innocent, no matter what her mother believed about her or how she presented herself. He called to mind an image of his sister and her torn remains, and of the monstrosity she had died giving birth to, and any pity he might have felt for Airie fled. #Quote by Paula Altenburg

#45. To strive to better oneself is natural and expected.
To abandon oneself in an effort to attain a new self is foolish and unhealthy. #Quote by T.A. Miles

#46. Jasper felt the sadness then. A strong sensation of being pulled underwater, of being helpless to do anything but sink. Further into the despair. Until it completely surrounded you. Until every breath you took was just swallowing more pain. Until you were in so deep that there wasn't any hope of ever breaking the surface again. #Quote by Jessica Gadziala

#47. Fraud is fraud. And consumers of any product - whether you want to buy a car, participate in fantasy football - our laws are very strong in New York and other states that you can't commit fraud. #Quote by Eric Schneiderman

#48. The expected battle hadn't taken place, yet something else had. Images of the entertainment which had just gone down were already coming back into Rat's head. It had been wonderful to watch, unbelievably wonderful, the enactment of several plays at once on a single stage, and Rat was sorry it was over, but in a way it was even better to relive it now in the privacy of his mind. He hadn't believed the boy-doctor and that stuff about the condom being used or warm, but he had gone along with it and the emotion which it powered. Everybody had. The emotion was the most important thing. He wondered how he could ever put such a chaotic, hilarious, sad thing down on paper, organise it into scenes or verses and fix his own pewiod at the end. He could never do it justice. He would never get that emotion back. #Quote by Graham Spaid

#49. When you discover that you are living in a fantasy that cannot endure, a fantasy that will destroy your world, and your children, what do you do?
People said things like, Fuck it, or Fuck the future. They said things like, The day is warm, or This meal is excellent, or Let's go to the lake and swim. #Quote by Kim Stanley Robinson

#50. It is natural if you feel as strongly as most decent people do about racial discrimination to welcome books that give it short shrift; but to assess books on their racial attitude rather than their literary value, and still more to look on books as ammunition in the battle, is to take a further and still more dangerous step from literature-as-morality to literature-as-propaganda - a move toward conditions in which, hitherto, literary art has signally failed to thrive.

("Didacticism in Modern Dress" from Only Connect (2nd ed., 1980). #Quote by John Rowe Townsend