Quotes by Tad Williams

As for monkeys, I would have five, and they would be named: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Do Pretty Much Whatever The Hell You Want, and Expensive Attorney.

He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.

You are only a prisoner when you surrender.

Whatever my ancestors did to you, none of them consulted me.

I havent met that many women, human or angelic, who actually like to drive. In my experience they seem to be much more pragmatic about the whole thing than we are. For most males, driving is an extension of their masculinity; they have little fantasy scenarios going all the time - races, chases, and dramatic combat with other drivers. Females, on the other hand, generally seem to view driving as something you do to get somewhere. I know, crazy.

People in science fiction flicks always seemed to know useful things about the places time travel took them. But what if the time traveler had been only an average history student? What then?

-Youre pretty hard-boiled, Tinker Bell.-Call me that name again and youll be wondering how your bollocks wound up lodged in your windpipe--from below. Just because we dont get to your side of things much anymore doesnt mean we dont know anything. If you believe in fairies, clap your hands! If you believe in fairies, kiss my rosy pink arse is more like it. Now are you going to shut your gob or not?

Even the kings Erkynguard might have wished to be elsewhere, rather than here on this killing ground where duty brought them and loyalty prisoned them. Only the mercenaries were here by choice. To Simon, the minds of men who would come to this of their own will were suddenly as incomprehensible as the thoughts of spiders or lizards—less so, even, for the small creatures of the earth almost always fled from danger. These were madmen, Simon realized, and that was the direst problem of the world: that madmen should be strong and unafraid, so that they could force their will on the weak and peace-loving. If God allowed such madness to be, Simon could not help thinking, then He was an old god who had lost His grip.

Was Briony the only person who could hear the venom dripping from the woman’s tongue? What good was beauty — a mature beauty, but beauty nonetheless — if it cloaked such a viperous soul?

A wolf is clever-clever-clever, and they are as faithful as a debt unpaid.

Dear DiaryWent out shopping today. Picked up half a dozen sheep, two pigs, and a princess. The sheep are rather depressingly thin, the pigs and princess only slightly less so. Dear DiaryWent out shopping today. Picked up half a dozen sheep, two pigs, and a princess. The sheep are rather depressingly thin, the pigs and princess only slightly less so.

Sometimes people need reasons for things, even when there are no reasons. Thats what makes people believe in conspiracies or religions - if there is any difference. The world is just too complicated, so they need simple explanations.

They were all becoming brothers, in the manner he had seen before: facing death together was the greatest of levelers.

After all, is it not the way we humans shape the universe, shape time itself? Do we not take the raw stuff of chaos and impose a beginning, middle, and end on it, like the simplest and most profound of folktales, to reflect the shapes of our own tiny lives? And if the physicists are right, that the physical world changes as it is observed, and we are its only known observers, then might we not be bending the entire chaotic universe, the eternal, ever-active Now, to fit that familiar form?

...Coca-Cola and fries, the wafer and wine of the Western religion of commerce.

It was strange how the future seemed tied inseparably to the past, so that both revolved through the present, like a great wheel...

She had to find her own story, and she could make it whatever shape she thought best.

Tangaloor, fire-brightFlame-foot, farthest walkerYour hunter speaksIn need he walksIn need, but never in fear.

Remember that each light between sunrise and sunset is worth dying for at least once.

Whats the light of Heaven look like on earth? Like sunlight streaming through clouds in the tackiest garage sale painting you ever saw. Really, its so beautiful its embarrassing. No subtlety whatsoever.