The first step to believing something is true is wanting to believe it is true… or being afraid it is.

Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.

The worse you are at thinking, the better you are at drinking.

I hate telling that story to people who’ve been struggling for years.

They look at me and I kind of back up in case they go for my throat.

The first step to believing something is true is wanting to believe it is true… or being afraid it is.

After the book took off, I bought a whole new wardrobe.

After that, I came back every year. Everyone said, ‘Well, when you retire you can move there.’ But I said, ‘Why should I live my whole life where I don’t want to be.’

I had to live this long, have the experiences I’ve had, to create what I do. I knew I wanted to write for years, but I had to be ready so I wouldn’t blow it. The move to Maine was the final step.

Fantasy allows you bend the world and the situation to more clearly focus on the moral aspects of what’s happening. In fantasy you can distill life down to the essence of your story.

No one ever goes into battle thinking God is on the other side.

I felt like I’d been misplaced in the cosmos and I belonged in Maine.

Your life is yours and yours alone. Rise up and live it.

If God is so powerful, can he create a rock which he cannot lift?

I’ve always said fantasy is sort of ‘stealth philosophy’.

I don’t think I could have written what I did any earlier.

It allows you to say things that sound very dramatic and get away with it. If you had characters in modern fiction say the same things as they’re driving down the street in an Oldsmobile they’d sound ludicrous!

Ever since I was really little, I’ve had characters that were in my mind.