Patricia C. Wrede

"Then they gave me a loaf of bread and told me to walk through the forest and give some to anyone who asked. I did exactly what they told me, and the second beggar-woman was a fairy in disguise, but instead of saying that whenever I spoke, diamonds and roses would drop from my mouth, she said that since I was so kind, I would never have any problems with my teeth. Really? Did it work?Well, I haven’t had a toothache since I met her. I’d much rather have good teeth than have diamonds and roses drop out of my mouth whenever I said something"

"I loved getting my M. B. A., and I really enjoyed being an accountant and financial analyst before I quit my day job twenty-five years ago to write full time. I just liked writing more…plus, I knew even then that as a full-time writer, I'd get plenty of chances to do business-type stuff, while as an accountant, I probably wouldn't get a lot of opportunities to write about dragons."

"The voices belonged to dragons. Five of them lay on or sprawled over or curled around the various rocks and columns that filled the huge cave where Cimorene stood. Each of the males (there were three) had two short, stubby, sharp-looking horns on either side of their heads; the female dragon had three, one on each side and one in the center of her forehead. The last dragon was apparently still too young to have made up its mind which sex it wanted to be; it didn't have any horns at all."

"I'd rather be eaten by a dragon."

"In fact, “talent” is as common as mud; what’s rare is the motivation to sit down and actually do something with one’s talent, the discipline to do it regularly, and the persistence to stick with it until it’s finished."

"He doesn't seem very impressed," Cimorene commented in some amusement."Why should he be" Kazul said."Well, you're a dragon," Cimorene answered, a little taken aback."What difference does that make to a cat?"

"(In reply to the question, 'Would you like some suggestions for a plot for your next book')There are three problems with getting plot suggestions from other people. The first is that ideas are the easy part of writing; finding the time and energy to get them down on paper is the hard part. I have plenty of ideas already. Which brings me to the second problem: the ideas that excite you, the ones you think would make a terrific book, are not necessarily the same ideas that excite me. And if a writer isn't excited about an idea, she generally doesn't turn out a terrific book, even if the idea is terrific. And the third problem with my using your suggestions is that, theoretically, you could sue me if I did, and that tends to make publishers nervous, which makes it hard to sell a book. So thank you, but no."

"Is it your background, then" Lord Franton smiled and shook his head. "That need not worry you. You're a wizard now; what you were before does not matter to me."Yes, it does," Kim said softly. "Because part of the time you're sorry about it, and part of the time you think it makes me interesting, and part of the time you ignore it. But you never forget it."

"Tell the story you want to tell, and let it be as long as it needs to be. Worry about marketing it later."

"One of the things everybody seems to want to ask writers is, "Where do you get your ideas" When people ask me this, my usual response is, "Ideas are the easy part. The hard part is writing them down."

"Murphy is a writer's best friend, but you have to keep an eye on him, or he'll steal the silver."

"I loved getting my M. B. A., and I really enjoyed being an accountant and financial analyst before I quit my day job twenty-five years ago to write full time. I just liked writing more…plus, I knew even then that as a full-time writer, I'd get plenty of chances to do business-type stuff, while as an accountant, I probably wouldn't get a lot of opportunities to write about dragons."