All because he had tried to rescue a beautiful, vacuous girl from a dragon. In folklore, such a hero always received a most intriguing reward. In reality, the hero was as likely as not to find himself...
Why did things have to be so complicated with human beings?...Yet if we were not what we were, creatures with at least the awareness of purpose and honor, what would we be? Empty knights in armor, see...
She would have to ride the nightmare in her sleep. Only that would keep it material, or enable her to dematerialize with it.
Only in Xanth would parents see a dragon looming over their children and depart with confidence.
How many people similarly spent their lives searching for their own spells—some gratuitous benefit such as a silver tree or political power or undeserved acclaim—when all they really needed was to be...
Decent folk had to let indecent folk do their thing; that was the paradox of decency.
A good notion for a novel is far too precious to waste; it must be caught the moment it flashes into mental view, or it will escape to the brain of some other writer who really doesn’t deserve it.
Evil people relate more to the black pole. It's - this is not exact, of course, as the science of magic is as complex as the magic of electronics - it's like traveling past a mountain. The white pole...
Nadir.
You don't have to settle for what you are at this moment. You can work to a difference.--Chex
Latia returned, coming around the curve and stepping through the glass. Yes, it's our path, she reported. And it seems to be near the ogre fen.Oh? How do you know? Esk asked.Oh, nothing specific. Tree...
It was said that familiarity bred contempt, but surely ignorance bred error.
I think that man was half-right. He is better off out of the game - but the game may not be better off without him. A man should not exist for himself alone. Life made an investment in him, and that i...
A mortal person's mind is like a wilderness, with a tremendous volume of decaying constructs and half-understood experience forming natural harbors for wild animal effects.
What is life, except an ongoing instinct for survival? Nature uses that instinct to make us perform; otherwise we would all relax, and the species would disappear. Nature is a cruel green mother. The...
The Magician charges a year’s service. You—would not want to pay. The Good Magician was male, and Wynne had only one obvious coin. No one would be interested in her mind.
Now you must excuse your Raja for he must suffer to give audience to the prince of Punt, a pompous old fool, who believes that his frequent flatulencies are the echoes of the Gods applauding his non s...
At this slower pace the journey took a couple of days, and I fought off a few minor threats along the way --griffins, carnivorous plants, giant serpents, hostile centaurs, that sort of thing, purely r...