It occurs to me that the peculiarity of most things we think of as fragile is how tough they truly are. There were tricks we did with eggs, as children, to show how they were, in reality, tiny load-be...

It was a damned awkward undertaking, trying to think of loving words, and he had absolutely no experience in this area, but he was still determined not to muck it up. Even with his men watching, he wa...

It was spring and they stood on the banks of the small river that ran beside the ruins of the old cathedral at Dyemore Abbey. The stone arch rose into a clear, blue sky and below, the scattered stones...

Modern life is a centrifuge; it throws people in every direction.

Moving heavy objects allowed me to feel manly in the eyes of other men. With the women it didn't matter, but I enjoyed subtly intimidating the guys with bad backs who thought they were helping out by...

My sisters and I sit together on a pair of suitcases. If we've forgotten anything, it's already too late -- our rooms have all been sealed and photographed. Anyway, Tatiana would say it's bad luck to...

Rocinante was of more value for a true traveller than a jet plane. Jet planes were for business men.

Señor, las tristezas no se hicieron para las bestias, sino para los hombres; pero si los hombres las sienten demasiado, se vuelven bestias...

She could not have asked for a more perfect day. The sun was shining, the humidity was low. There was a slight breeze. The water was a silvery blue. It was a bright, beautiful, early, autumn day. Perf...

She had an idea, but it was the wrong idea. It was hardly even an idea, just a white idea balloon with no writing inside it.

She should not remember what it was like to be free.

Jimmy held on to the reins for dear life, and thought that a horse was about the most slippery creature to sit on that he had ever met. He slithered first one way and then another, and at last he slid...

Other folk thought the Rage was simple bloodlust, a berserk savagery that neither knew nor cared what its target was, and so it was when it struck without warning. But when a hradani gave himself to i...

Perhaps you couldn't help being angry... but you could certainly stop yourself from repaying one offense with another.

Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.

Listen, street punk. You're a guy, and you're a couple inches taller, and maybe forty pounds heavier, and ooh, you're in a gang. But I've survived ten years of Catholic school, and I will cut you off...

Luc let out a strangled, hoarse laugh. Oh shit. ET so phoned home, kids.

On THE AMBER SPYGLASS:If this plotline was a motorist, it would have been arrested for driving while intoxicated, if it had not perished in the horrible drunk accident where it went headlong over the...

No: I shall not marry Samuel Fawthrop Wynne.I ask why? I must have a reason. In all respects he is more than worthy of you.She stood on the hearth; she was pale as the white marble slab and cornice be...

Now, had the dressing of her- and why should he not?- he would put her in reds- rose and scarlet and deep, sensual crimson. Those dark inquisitor's eyes would from a foil of crimson cloth, mysteriou...