“But when you have order, you don’t need Gods. When everything is well ordered and disciplined then nothing is unexpected.”

You won’t regret the men you never killed, but you will regret the women you passed up.

What I mean by that is that the point of life, as I see it, is not to write books or scale mountains or sail oceans, but to achieve happiness, and preferably an unselfish happiness.

So far it’s 43 books in 25 years.

Wyrd bith ful araed (Fate is inexorable).

Research is a lifelong occupation so it’s hard to factor it in, but I reckon most books take 5 months from start to finish.

I’ll happily mentor anyone who wants mentoring, and most of that goes on by internet rather than face to face.

Of course some days are easier than others, but my worst day is better than being in most humdrum occupations.

Love is a dangerous thing. It comes in disguise to change our life… Lust is the deceiver. Lust wrenches our lives until nothing matters except the one we think we love, and under that deceptive spell we kill for them, give all for them, and then, when we have what we have wanted.

Looking back, of course, it was irresponsible, mad, forlorn, idiotic, but if you don’t take chances then you’ll never have a winning hand, and I’ve no regrets.

Then you start another book and suddenly the galley proofs of the last one come in and you have to wrench your attention away from what you’re writing and try to remember what you were thinking when you wrote the previous one.

We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation.

Only a fool wants war, but once a war starts then it cannot be fought half-heartedly. It cannot even be fought with regret, but must be waged with a savage joy in defeating the enemy, and it is that savage joy that inspires our bards to write their greatest songs about love and war.

Life is a jest of the Gods and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh… or else you’ll weep yourself to death.

Even the nailed god cannot change that truth. And I was a warrior, and in a world at war the warrior must be cruel.

Because there could not be peace, not while two tribes shared one land. One tribe must win. Even the nailed god cannot change that truth. And I was a warrior, and in a world at war the warrior must be cruel.

Book tours and research provide a lot of travel – too much, I sometimes think, but we do take vacations.

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there.

My wife was afraid of the dark… then she saw me naked and now she’s afraid of the light.

The Dark Side of the Moon is a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement.

There will always be those who must look into the dark in order to see.

In a world of fixed future, life is an infinite corridor of rooms, one room lit at each moment, the next room dark but prepared.

[H]istory is seen in a rear-view mirror while the future is the dark, foggy road ahead, filled with unknown trouble.

Curiosity takes ignorance seriously – and is confident enough to admit when it’s in the dark. It is aware of not knowing. And then it sets out to do something about it.

I’m so shy now I wear sunglasses everywhere I go.