Brent Weeks
I think that fiction is an excellent place for us to struggle with questions of good and evil, and humanity and inhumanity.
I believe that it's an author's job to cast his imagination into the far spaces. Your life should - and I think it's inescapable that it will - inform your work. I'm all for using anything that can make your art better, but your intuition should be an equal partner.
It's easier for me to write certain character types because of my own life experiences, but I find it too artistically limiting to only write about red-headed kids who grew up in small town Montana. That's really part of the fun of fantasy, I think. Our imagination is basically unlimited. Okay, that's a terrifying thing about fantasy, too.
Telling a story is like trying to eat grapes with a fork. It's always trying to get away from you. And if you're a good author, and you've challenged yourself, and you're telling big stories, there's more and more that's trying to get away from you simultaneously.
My writing has a lot of surprising twists.
Sometimes after a compliment about my characterization skills, I'm asked if I model my characters on real people. Emphatically, no. And sort of, yes.
'The Black Prism' is a story about two brothers who respect and fear and admire and contend with and shape each other. In other words, it's a story of normal brothers - who happen to be in extraordinary circumstances.
'The Black Prism' is a story of emperors and prisoners and magic set in a Mediterranean, 1600-esque world. It's a fantasy story; it's fast and fun and inventive.
Do you know what punishments I've endured for my crimes, my sins? None. I am proof of the absurdity of men's most treasured abstractions. A just universe wouldn't tolerate my existence.Collection: Men
Evil is simple and empty. Evil has no mysterious depths. We stare into a dark hole and fill it with our fears, but it is only a hole.Collection: Dark
Love is not a whim. Love is not a flower that fades with a few fleeting years. Love is a choice wedded to action, my husband, and I choose you, and I will choose you every day for the rest of my life.Collection: Wedding
If you worry about what everyone is trying to do, you become a spectator and not a player.Collection: Player
You don't need to like reality, only be strong enough to face itCollection: Strong
Put on some armor. Just remember what's armor and what's you, so when it's time to take it off, you can.Collection: Armor
..because the only kind of love I have to offer is stupid and blind and so deep and powerful that I feel like I'm cracking just to hold it in.Collection: Powerful
What people value in their books—and thus what they count as literature—really tells you more about them than it does about the book.Collection: Book
Moments of beauty sustain us through hours of ugliness.Collection: Moments
If you are not free to say no, your yes is meaningless.Collection: Ifs
Life is nothing in itself. It’s a place marker that proves who’s winning, and we are the winners. We are always the winners. There is nothing but the winning. Even winning means nothing. We win because it’s an insult to lose. The ends don’t justify the means. The means don’t justify the ends. There is no one to justify to. There is no justice.” ~ Durzo BlintCollection: Mean
If you looked busy, you could get away with almost anything.Collection: Busy
Will covers a multitude of flaws, just as love covers a multitude of sins.Collection: Sin
Why is it, my shadow-striding friend, that we don't fear dreams? We lose consciousness, lose control, things happen with no apparent logic and abiding by no apparent rules.... We don't fear dreams, but we do fear madness, and death terrifies us.Collection: Dream
You will find no answers here, just choices.Collection: Choices
Just because it's a dream doesn't mean it's a lie.Collection: Dream
Words were another sword for the man who wielded them well.Collection: Men
You might want to think twice before you try to use a man's conscience against him. It may turn out he doesn't have one.Collection: Men
Delusional people tend to believe in what they're doing.Collection: Believe
Relationships are ropes. Love is a noose. - Durzo BlintCollection: Love Is
The God gives simpler problems to lesser men.Collection: Men
You have to be a little bad to make history.Collection: Littles
one doesn't interrupt a beautiful girl unless one is going to be funny.Collection: Beautiful
Bewildered as he might be, sometimes a man's highest calling is simply to stand, and hug.Collection: Men
Life is empty. Life is worthless. When we take a life, we aren't taking anything of value.- Durzo BlintCollection: Empty Life
Assassination is an art, milord. And I am the city's most accomplished artist.Collection: Art
And what fun is it being a genius if no one appreciates you?Collection: Fun
You'd be surprised at what you'd do to stay alive.Collection: Alive
Her nudity is her armor. It blinded the drooling fools. They couldn't see anything else while they saw her body.Collection: Armor
It's better that the innocent should live than that the guilty dieCollection: Guilty
Dad, one of my first memories is of sharing my worry with you about the space shuttle poking holes in the atmosphere and letting out all of Earth's air.Collection: Funny
If embarrassment were a muscle, I'd be huge.Collection: Embarrassment
The duke sounded like he was trying to convince himself. “Have you ever done this before?” “Set up someone by pretending to be someone else? Sure. Pretended to get killed? Not so much.Collection: Trying
I don’t know how you’ve managed a tan,” Daydra said, “but you’ll have to keep it up, and talk like a pirate. If you want to work for Momma K, you’re going to be the Sethi pirate girl. You have a husband or a lover?” Kaldrosa hesitated. “Husband,” she admitted. “The last beating nearly killed him.” “If you do this, you’ll never get him back. A man can forgive a woman who leaves whoring for him, but he’ll never forgive one who goes whoring for him.” “It’s worth it,” Kaldrosa said. “To save his life, it’s worth it.Collection: Girl
Remember that time you tried to hump the bridge?Collection: Bridges
Durzo pulled out a gold Gunder from his pouch. Crowns Roth wins, Castles I lose. He flipped the coin. It bounced on the table and, impossibly, landed on edge. There´s always another choice, Kylar said.Collection: Winning
A wolf can be a wolfhound, son, but it can never be a lapdog.Collection: Son
The perfect killer has no friends. Only targets.Collection: Perfect
Elene gasped and sat up. "Kylar Thaddeus Stern!" Kylar giggled. "Thaddeus? That's a good one. I knew a Thaddeus once." "So did I. He was a blind idiot." "Really?" Kylar said, his eyes dancing. "The one I knew was famous for his gigantic-" "Kylar!" Elene interrupted, motioning toward Uly. "His gigantic what?" Uly asked. "Now you did it." Elene said, "His gigantic what, Kyler?" "Feet. And you know what they say about big feet." He winked lasciviously at Elene. "What?" Uly asked. "Big Shoes," Kylar said.Collection: Eye
Why do you keep saying incarnations like I’m some kind of god?” It wasn’t a great question, but the real questions were so big that Kylar didn’t even know how ask them. “You are worshipped in a few remote areas where your master wasn’t very careful about showing the full extent of his powers.” “What?!Collection: Real
You’ll come with us,” she said. “Sure,” Gavin said. “It wasn’t a request.” “Yes it was,” Gavin said. “When you don’t have power to compel obedience, by definition you’re making a request.Collection: Definitions
There was a nice dilemma. How does one interject into a polite conversation, "By the way, in case you're ever interested, I do have a penise."?Collection: Nice