Trudi Canavan Quotes

Ranel had said that the murderer wore a ring with a red gemstone. Looking at Akkarin's hands, she was almost disappointed to see they were bare. Not even a mark to hint that a ring might have been worn regularly. His fingers were long and elegant, yet masculine ...

Believe me. There was nothing good in always being second place. Next to you, I may as well have been invisible - at least when it came to the ladies. If I'd known, we'd both end up as bachelors, I wouldn't have been so jealous of you.'
'Jealous?' Akkarin's smile faded. He turned away to stare at the horizon. 'No. Don't be jealous.

Hasty learning can lead to mistakes, and magical mistakes tend to be more spectacular than healing mistakes. My father used to use that reasoning to explain why apprentices of magi drink far less than the students of healing."
Veran grinned. "'Healers wake up with a sore head," he used to say; 'magicians wake up with a sore head, our toes burned black and the roof on the floor.

Inspiration comes from so many sources. Music, other fiction, the non-fiction I read, TV shows, films, news reports, people I know, stories I hear, misheard words or lyrics, dreams ... Motivation? The memory of the rush I get from a really good writing session - even on a bad day, I know I'll find that again if I keep going.

I still recommend reading travel guides as an insight to a traveller's perspective on fantasy worlds. Nearly all characters end up travelling at some point, and they have many of the same needs and concerns covered in travel guides.

The right rumour in the right ears can kill the emperor, as they say.

It was a day-by-day record of a Guild much younger and smaller than the current one. After several pages, she had grown fond of the record-keeper, who clearly admired the people he was writing about.

You two still establishing a pecking order?"
"Oh, it's clear who's at the top," Jayan said. "The lesser hordes need to sort out their own hierarchy. Are you enjoying being the prize they're fighting over?"
"Me?"
"Yes, you. I'm afraid female magicians have quite a reputation. My young, naïve subordinates are trying to work out if any of them stands a chance with you."
"A chance?" She turned and began picking fruit again. "Am I to expect a marriage proposal, or something much shallower?"
"Definitely shallower," he said.

Nodding, Cery strode to the door and stepped through. Though the burly guards eyes him suspiciously, Cery smiled back. Never make enemies of someone's lackeys, his father had taught him. Better still, make them like you a lot.

Cery: So, Hem, tell me why I shouldn't see how many holes I need to make before you start leaking money?

Injustice alway captures the attention of the young," she said. "But as we get older we discover how difficult it is to change the world, and we learn to turn our eyes away from what we can't fix until we no longer see injustice at all.

Change goes on all the time. You lose something and you gain something else."
- Cery

The last young lady I met stabbed me. You know I'm cursed when it comes to women.

There was no fast and painless way to perform an amputation, Tessia knew. Not if you did it properly.

There's no need for me to enter your mind, just sit at the edges and look for leakage."
"Leakage?" Veran looked at his daughter. "You magicians have some interesting terms. Not particularly reassuring ones.

When Tessia and Jayan were served a large, fat rassook each, Jayan had smugly commented that Tessia certainly had a way with villagers and he would not be surprised if she could charm pickpockets into putting money into her wallet.

Mortals did not need gods to order them to kill eachother. They were quite capable of finding reasons to do so themselves.

A friend. Cery's shoulders drooped. Closing his eyes, he let out a long sigh.

It was impossible to imagine the aloof, dignified, powerful High Lord living as, of all things, a slave.

Most people would not open a door unless they knew what lay beyond, and even if they opened the door by mistake, they would find an uninteresting room beyond.

He watched her drink the soup. "You're getting bored with me, aren't you?"
She smiled slyly. "No. I have never found you boring, Mirar. In fact, I've always found you a little too interesting for my own good."
He chuckled. So. There it was. The invitation. He had noted the way she sometimes looked at him. Thoughtful. Curious. Admiring. The spark of attraction was still there for her. Was it for him?
He thought back to other times circumstances had brought them to each other's beds and felt an old but familiar interest flare. Yes, he thought. It's still there.

Better to know the quick pain of truth than the ongoing pain of a long-held false hope.

Wisdom and knowledge is everywhere, but so is stupity.

What was I thinking? Of all the assistants I could have wound up with, why did I have to choose the one with the scary mother and troublemaking in his bloodlines? I am doomed.

Hanara did not yet feel he'd reached long-life. It was a state, slaves said, where you felt satisfied you have lived long enough. Where you didn't feel cheated if you died. You might not have had an easy life, or a happy one, but you'd had your measure. Or you had made a difference to the world, even a small one, because you had existed.

He had given her too much. He had given her everything.

It had surprised and impressed Tessia to learn that Everran and Avaria owned two wagons, one for their own everyday use and one kept for visits to the Royal Palace. Since the journey to the palace consisted of half the length of two streets, it seemed frivolous to own a vehicle especially for it.

It always seems easier to do nothing, when the harm is don elsewhere," Dakon said. "They know their young ones will either learn a lesson and limp home – or die and stop being a problem – or prove successful. The worst that could happen is a bit of a diplomatic hiccup in history.

Though I can't help feeling a sudden death cheats you of something. Death is an experience of life. You only get one death. I would like to be aware it was happening, even if that did mean enduring pain and fear.

The first rule of world-building is available physics, which basically means that if you want it to feel real, it has to follow the same rules as this world, from gravity to how human behaviour works. If you have a fantasy element that doesn't obey the laws of physics, make sure that it has a fantasy explanation.

He liked the idea that if either of them ever fell from grace, the other might be there to offer support.

'The Black Magician Trilogy' was about a conflict between countries and was very limited and almost claustrophobic in its range of settings, while 'The Age of the Five' was about a conflict between continents.

The most powerful women in Sachaka and all you do is waste time gossiping and matchmaking

I always love writing the third book in a series because you get to tie up all the threads that you put out in the first two books. You finally let people know what really happens and reveal all the secrets and bring certain characters together.

Great. She shook her head. Not only am I having conversations with myself, but now I'm refusing to talk to me. This has got to be the first sign of madness.

I don't have any specific plans to return to the 'Age of the Five.' If I do, it won't be a sequel.

It is said, in Imardin, that the wind has a soul, and that it wails through the narrow streets because it is grieved by what it finds there.

Cold, truthful common sense was harder to like than warm, hopeful generosity.

We have more in common than I thought, he mused wryly. He liked the idea that, if either of them ever fell from grace, the other might be there to offer support. It's always easier to become friends with someone you have something in common with. I just hope it doesn't take some socially disastrous fall before she'll consider the possibility I might be a friend.

Tayend nodded. "I know it won't. I admit I was worried about you, but you are still your old self, underneath."
Dannyl straightened in protest. "Underneath what?"
The Elyne stood up, waving one hand in Dannyl's direction. "All ... that."
"I'm reeling at your descriptive clarity," Dannyl told him.

Your supposed to drink wine, my friend, not breathe it.

I suppose if Akkarin came to rescue you all the time, people would say you weren't a good choice. The novices are all jealous of you, not realising that they would be in the same situation if they were the High Lord's favourite, even if they are from the Houses. Any novice he chose would be a target. Always expected to prove themselves.

People and land, they're the same, his father used to say. Neglect one and the other suffers eventually.

Suddenly she was all too aware how different she was. A woman among all these man. A natural from a humble background among rich young men chosen from powerful families. A beginner among the well trained.

I wound up studying art and design, got a job at Lonely Planet Publications as a designer, cartographer and illustrator.