It seems a simple task. We all know what water looks like, feels like in our mouth. Water is ubiquitous. Describing a cup of water feels a little like doing a still life painting. As a child I used to wonder: Why do people spend so much time painting bowls of fruit, when they could be painting dragons? Why learn to describe a cup of water, when the story is about cool magic and (well) dragons?

It’s a thing I had trouble with as a teenage writer—I’d try to rush through the “boring” parts to get to the interesting parts, instead of learning how to make the boring parts into the interesting parts. And a cup of water is vital to this. Robert Jordan showed me that a cup of water can be a cultural dividing line–the difference between someone who grew up between two rivers, and someone who’d never seen a river before a few weeks ago.

A cup of water can be an offhand show of wealth, in the shape of an ornamented cup. It can be a mark of traveling hard, with nothing better to drink. It can be a symbol of better times, when you had something clean and pure. A cup of water isn’t just a cup of water, it’s a means of expressing character. Because stories aren’t about cups of water, or even magic and dragons. They’re about the people painted, illuminated, and changed by magic and dragons.


Brandon Sanderson

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

I am often asked how it is that I am able to value people to such a deep degree. Apparently, I exhib...
C. JOYBELL C.
You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part.
HENRY JAMES
You're still lovely," Mor said a bit gently.
Elain offered a half smile. "I suppose that war m...
SARAH J. MAAS
You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When ...
BRUCE LEE
She wasn't bitter. She was sad, though. But it was a hopeful kind of sad. The kind of sad that just ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I love my mom so much. I don't care if that's corny to say. I think on my next birthday, I'm going t...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
We Are All Infinite
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
(All the grief she had suffered over her lifetime had moulded her face into a mask of eternal sadnes...
JEAN SASSON
You can't just sit there and put everyone's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I saw other people there. Old men sitting alone. Young girls with blue eye shadow and awkward jaws. ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
That one moment when you know you are not a sad story. You are ALIVE.
STEPHAN CHBOSKY
Somos quienes somos por un montón de razones.Quizás nunca conozcamos la mayoría de ellas.Pero aun...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
Ambos dijeron que tomara asiento y parecían hablar en serio, así que me senté.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I know these will all be stories some day, and our pictures will become old photographs. We all beco...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybewe'll never know most of them.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
There's nothing like the deep breathes after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore st...
STHEPHEN CHBOSKY
no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks, when the teacher rings the bell, drop...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I don't know the significance of this, but I find it very interesting.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
Maybe it’s sad that these are now memories. And maybe it’s not sad.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you...
C. JOYBELL C.
The issue isn't whether he loved you, it's how much. Too much. Love can be poison
SARAH J. MAAS
I am broken and healing, but every piece of my heart belong to you.
SARAH J. MAAS
He thinks he'll be remembered as the villain in the story. But I forgot to tell him that the villain...
SARAH J. MAAS
Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold ...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
Hodor," said Hodor.
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
You do what you love, what you need
SARAH J. MAAS
I turned.
Rhysand leaned against the archway into the sitting room, arms crossed, wings nowhere...
SARAH J. MAAS
كنت أصمت أذعن لمصيري. أحمل دميتي,أنزع ملابسها, أشد شعره�...
مليكة مستظرف
The norm which the society at large has set today categorically is in the form of preventive measure...
HENRIETTA NEWTON MARTIN LEGAL CONSULTANT
A family is like a card game, on one hand, you can get a really bad hand and on the other, your hand...
GARY F EVANS...
She was scarcely a year older than I was, dark-haired, slender, with a face that would break your he...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you ...
BRUCE LEE
How lucky I am to have known somebody and something that saying goodbye to is so damned awful.
EVANS G. VALENS
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the c...
BRUCE LEE
Like a deep sad note
played beneath the ocean
waving through the orb
the memories of ...
PAWAN MISHRA
I'm not saying that I'm better than anyone... I'm just saying that I'm one-of-a-kind.
C LIONG
A person of value have skill, a vision & a deep desire to achieve what they dream for. Happiness com...
DR ANIL KUMAR SINHA
A man of guilt acknowledges and changes himself immediately on being hinted slightly about his fault...
ANUJ SOMANY
The school year progressed slowly. I felt as if I had been in the sixth grade for years, yet it was ...
LUCY GREALY
The value of a consultant;An outsider can see what an insider cannot see or has decided to ignore.
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN)
The worth of a person’s quote is in his or her heart where it takes the birth and the value of the...
ANUJ SOMANY
Walking the rugged trail of the unknown destiny can be filled with walls crashing and cracks on the ...
GARY F EVANS...
It makes you wonder why the human race can be so selfish and self-centered sometimes, when on cold w...
GARY F EVANS...
To have a pet in the family is to invite good health into your lives.It brings happiness to all and ...
GARY F EVANS...
I can see you have a great deal of water in your personality. Water never waits. It changes shape an...
ARTHUR GOLDEN
Plunging in “truths” about God is like walking on the bottom of a sea that is not there, searchi...
MARIANA FULGER
That boy had wanted to be Ser Arthur Dayne, but someplace along the way he had become the Smiling Kn...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
I was very grateful to have heard it again. Because I guess we all forget sometimes. And I think eve...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
We die a day at a time
BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA
Each man lives in his own universe and when he dies the world is over
BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA
She made a fence of phrases, which seemed a treachery to herself.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
You are the blood of the dragon. You can make a hat.
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
If you put a spoonful of salt
in a cup of water
it tastes very salty.
If you put a sp...
JACK KORNFIELD
Never give up on you. In order to make a difference you would have to somehow be different.
JOHNNIE DENT JR.
In the real world, they told you who to be, not the other way around.
RHODA BELLEZA
لم يكن بمقدوري سوى الهروب إلى عالمي الخاص: إلى الحلم. أت...
مليكة مستظرف
I want to share this bed with you, though," I breathed. "I want you to hold me."
Stars flicker...
SARAH J. MAAS
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you ...
BRUCE LEE
The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY
It appeared to Harriet that she was always the one who remembered having seen other people. They nev...
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
On the sea he wished to meet it, if meet it he must. He was not sure why this was, yet he had a terr...
URSULA K. LE GUIN
As far back as history records people thinking, thinking people have been befuddled by the mysteries...
LEWIS N. ROE
Let your true love be your lifetime treasure and beyond.
ANGELICA HOPES
I was suddenly very aware of the fact it was me standing up in that tunnel with the wind over my fac...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
The only perspective is to really be there.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I didn't feel like reading that night, so I went downstairs and watched a half-hour long commercial ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
Why is England manufacturing bigger and better airplanes and bombs and at the same time churning out...
ANNE FRANK
Kehidupan perempuan itu sembilan bagian kacau dan satu bagian ajaib, kau akan segera mengetahuinya.....
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
Jaime smiled knowingly. Men will read all sorts of things into a knowing smile if you let them.
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
Though we are terrorized by death, it's not different from birth, it just happens
BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA
it's okay to feel things. And be who you are about them.
STEPHEN CHOBOSKY
All concepts of making a point is another failure of communication.
DEYTH BANGER
I just want silence... nothing less... nothing more.
DEYTH BANGER
Knowledge causes depression and a lot of pressure.
DEYTH BANGER
This is going to take a while. I'm a fantasy author. We have trouble with the concept of brevity.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Be yourself and people will like you.
JEFF KINNEY
The best person I know is Myself.
JEFF KINNEY
If you play football, then for every goal that you score, ask your self, what is the 'grudge of a li...
APURVA GAGLANI
I don’t want to start thinking again. Not like I have this last week. I can’t think again. Not e...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
It's strange to describe reading a book as a really great experience, but that's kind of how it felt...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people you...
FREDRIK BACKMAN
Closed eyes, heart not beating, but a living love.
AVIS COREA
I’m caught between trying to live my life, and trying to run from it.
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
I don't want to be somebody's crush.if somebody likes me, i want them to like the real me, not what ...
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
When you are called for a great duty because you have been given a great ability, do your very best ...
ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH
I wish I was home", She said miserably.
She tried so hard to be brave,
to be fierce as a...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
I drink tons of water. When you're puffy, you think you can't drink water since you feel mor...
KATE WALSH
He had what he called just a small ration of tools:
A painted book.
A handful of pencils.<...
MARKUS ZUSAK
A small change can make a big difference. You are the only one who can make our world a better place...
ANKITA SINGHAL
Absoballylutely top hole, wot. A and B the C of D I'd say. . . Above and Beyond the Call of Duty.
BRIAN JACQUES
I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal.
I was a survivor, and I was strong.
I would no...
SARAH J. MAAS
I sipped from my wine. "And if he had grabbed me?"

There was nothing but uncompromising w...
SARAH J. MAAS
There you are. I've been looking for you.

His first words to me— not a lie at a...
SARAH J. MAAS
I was not prey any longer, I decided as I eased up to that door.
And I was not a mouse.
I ...
SARAH J. MAAS
No one was my master— but I might be master of everything, if I wished. If I dared.
SARAH J. MAAS
He drained his glass. "I made a mistake."
"It's not the end of the world if you do that every n...
SARAH J. MAAS

More Brandon Sanderson

Personally, I say, "Out of the frying pan and into the deadly pit filled with sharks who are wieldin...
BRANDON SANDERSON
As she’d left, I’d glanced at her gun.
This time, when she’d pointed it at me, she’d fl...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I've seen Steelheart bleed.
And I will see him bleed again.
BRANDON SANDERSON
I don't talk to myself because I'm crazy."
"No?"
"I do it because I'm awesome.
BRANDON SANDERSON
It does strange things to you to realize that the conservative establishment is forcing you t...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Power could be an illusion of perception. Even within yourself.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Just because I do not accept the teachings of the devotaries does not mean I've discarded a belief i...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Never throw the first punch. If you have to throw the second, try to make sure they don't get up for...
BRANDON SANDERSON
The buzzing was like the eager purr of a muscle car that had just been started, but left in neutral....
BRANDON SANDERSON
I wasn’t a nerd, mind you, but I’d spent a lot of my youth studying Epics, so I’d had limited ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Somehow, we'll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I am a Smedry, and we do ridiculous, unexpected, eccentric things like this all the time! Ha-ha!
BRANDON SANDERSON
Those candle flames were like the lives of men. So fragile. So deadly. Left alone, they lit and warm...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Marsh: Our best efforts were never even a mild annoyance to the Lord Ruler."
Kelsier: Ah, but b...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You're a very difficult person to manipulate, you know."
"Nonsense," he said. "You just have to...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Well, Vin says that there's something behind all this, right? Some evil force of doom or whatever? W...
BRANDON SANDERSON
To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Elend smiled. "Oh, come on. You have to admit that you're unusual, Vin. You're like some strange mix...
BRANDON SANDERSON
There's always another secret.' -Kelsier
BRANDON SANDERSON
I try to avoid having thoughts. They lead to other thoughts, and—if you’re not careful—those l...
BRANDON SANDERSON
But you can't kill me, Lord Tyrant. I represent that one thing you've never been able to kill, no ma...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Elend: I kind of lost track of time…
Breeze: For two hours?
Elend: There were books invo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I've always been very confident in my immaturity.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Mocking a woman is like drinking too much wine. It may be fun for a short time, but the hangover is ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Life before Death.
Strength before Weakness.
Journey before Destination.
BRANDON SANDERSON
You should try not to talk so much, friend. You'll sound far less stupid that way.

- Bree...
BRANDON SANDERSON
The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You see, that is the sad, sorry, terrible thing about sarcasm.

It's really funny.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Kelsier exhaled in exasperation. “Elend Venture? You risked your life—risked the plan, and our l...
BRANDON SANDERSON
... everyone knows that ice cream is worth the trouble of being cold. Like all things virtuou...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I know, better than anyone else, that there are no heroes coming to save us. There are no good Epics...
BRANDON SANDERSON
...Regardless, I still do not believe that your duty is to do as the people wish. Your duty is to le...
BRANDON SANDERSON
The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accompli...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Good men don't become legends," he said quietly.
"Good men don't need to become legends." She o...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Jasnah had once defined a fool as a person who ignored information because it disagreed with desired...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Megan looked at me and blushed. A blush looked really good on her. Of course, so would soup, mud, or...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I couldn’t help grinning at the sight of her. Megan, in turn, raised a nine-millimeter square at m...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I needed to say something. Something romantic! Something to sweep her off her feet.
"You’re l...
BRANDON SANDERSON
What would you think if I told you that I wasn’t an Allomancer?” Sazed asked.
“I’d thin...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Kaladin screamed, reaching the end of the bridge. Finding a tiny surge of strength somewhere, he rai...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You know, I was a nerdy kid going through high school, and then I got to college and that all vanish...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Don’t do anything stupid."
"Don’t worry," I whispered over the line, "I’m an expert on st...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Sometimes it is very useful to have a reputation for being a reclusive, amoral jerk.
BRANDON SANDERSON
I'm not really sure why. But... do you stop loving someone just because they betray you? I don't thi...
BRANDON SANDERSON
He felt a swelling of pride. Ridiculous, of course. He had endangered the kindgdom — how would peo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king […] Whit...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I'm convinced that responsibility is some kind of psychological disease.
BRANDON SANDERSON
What is a woman's place in this modern world? Jasnah Kholin's words read. I rebel against ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I am a writer who works from an outline. What I generally do when I build an outline is I find focal...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Ah, the outdoors,' Shallan said. 'I visited that mythical place once.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Why did they believe? Because they saw miracles. Things one man took as chance, a man of faith took ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Aspiring Asimovs!
BRANDON SANDERSON
That was terribly thoughtless of you. What good is having friends if they don’t put you in mortal ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Control yourself, she told herself forcibly. Become someone who can deal with this. She took a deep ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
It was strange, how easily and quickly protection could cause destruction. Sometimes, Vasher wondere...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I ain’t grouchy,” Teft snapped. “I just have a low threshold for stupidity.
BRANDON SANDERSON
The world isn't fair? What a huge revelation! Some people in power abuse those they have power over?...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.
BRANDON SANDERSON
To be human is to seek beauty, Shallan. Do not despair, do not end the hunt because thorns grow in y...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Sometimes the prize is not worth the costs. The means by which we achieve victory are as important a...
BRANDON SANDERSON
My name is David Charleston.
I kill people with super powers.
BRANDON SANDERSON
We take to the skies, Stormblessed," Lunamor said. "We will walk no more in coming days. This is the...
BRANDON SANDERSON
It had been like discovering that Santa Claus was secretly a Nazi.
BRANDON SANDERSON
A man is what he has passion about,” Breeze said. “I’ve found that if you give up what ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
If you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you'll end up miserable.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Faith means that it doesn't matter what happens. You can trust that somebody is watching. Trust that...
BRANDON SANDERSON
It sounds to me, young one," Haddek said, "that you are searching for something that cannot be found...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Definitely not—you optimists just can't understand that a depressed person doesn't want you to try...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Kaladin frowned. “Wait. Are you wearing cologne? In prison?”
“Well, there was no need to ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Our belief is often strongest when it should be weakest. That is the nature of hope.
BRANDON SANDERSON
The hallmark of insecurity is bravado.
BRANDON SANDERSON
I could take a shower every day in my own bathroom. I almost didn’t know what to do with such luxu...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I’m going to destroy you, little man!" Sourcefield yelled after me. "I’ll rip you apart like a p...
BRANDON SANDERSON
A person needed to experience real danger or they would never find joy in excelling. There had to be...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You don't really get to choose. We worship you, and that makes you our God.
BRANDON SANDERSON
This is going to take a while. I'm a fantasy author. We have trouble with the concept of brevity.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Authors also create lovable, friendly characters, then proceed to do terrible things to them, like t...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Personally, I like it much better when someone else does the decision making. That way you have legi...
BRANDON SANDERSON
People can do great things. However, there are some things they just CAN'T do. I, for instance, have...
BRANDON SANDERSON
The Shaod, it was called. The Transformation... When it came, the fortuante person's life ended and ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Doing something brave is much like saying something stupid. You rarely plan on it happening.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Only expectation has value as currency,
BRANDON SANDERSON
I am but a man, Dalinar, so much as I wish it were not true at times. I am no Radiant. And while I a...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I hadn’t been a nerd, mind you. I’d just been the type of guy who spent a lot of time by himself...
BRANDON SANDERSON
To their simple, degenerate minds there was only one thing to do when faced by a God more powerful t...
BRANDON SANDERSON
He saw it in her eyes. The anguish, the frustration. The terrible nothing that clawed inside and sou...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Breeze strolled over to the table and chose a seat with his characteristic decorum. The portly man r...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Why hasn't anyone killed him yet?”
“Dumb luck,” Wit said. “In that I’m lucky you’re...
BRANDON SANDERSON
We follow the codes not because they bring gain, but because we loathe the people we would otherwise...
BRANDON SANDERSON
In the end, all men die. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you acco...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days...What is belief - what is faith - if you...
BRANDON SANDERSON
For glory lit, and life alive, for goals unreached and aims to strive. All men must try, the wind di...
BRANDON SANDERSON
What did you put in the fire?" Kaladin said. "To make that special smoke?"
"Nothing. It was jus...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Belief?"
"Yes," Sazed said. "Tell me, Mistress. What is it that you believe?"
Vin frowned....
BRANDON SANDERSON
My behavior is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I'm quite prone to such bouts of deplorabilit...
BRANDON SANDERSON
It's easy to believe in something when you win all the time...The losses are what define a man's fai...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Stealing regular stuff was no fun. She wanted a real challenge. Over the last two years, she'd picke...
BRANDON SANDERSON
And don't waste time worshipping Harmony. Doing good was the worship.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Every action we take has consequences, Vin," Kelsier said. "I've found that in both Allomancy and li...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Any chef worth his spoons learned to talk, because cooking was an art—and art was subjective. One ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
As long as you keep trying, there's a chance. When you give up? That's when the dream dies.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Janala is a fool, just bright enough to be proud of the wits she has, but stupid enough to be unawar...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Your ego doesn’t count as a separate individual, Shallan.
BRANDON SANDERSON
In all the history of mankind, has any conqueror decided they had enough? Has any man just said, ‘...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Drehy,” Kaladin said, “you are literally courting a man.”
“So?” Drehy said.
�...
BRANDON SANDERSON
The question,’ she replied, ‘is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what you ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
He came at me,” Adolin said, “in the training rooms, screaming that you’d found the killer. Sa...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Love wasn’t about being right or wrong, but about standing up and helping when your partner’s ba...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I think you underestimate the stubbornness a crown can press into a man
BRANDON SANDERSON
I don’t hate you, Pattern,” Shallan said. “I hate the sword.” “But—” “The sword isn�...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You want to change the world, Shallan. That’s well and good. But be careful. The world predates yo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
He quivered on the ground his face pressed to the stone and didn’t rise.
“Did you… did y...
BRANDON SANDERSON
If you could explain something perfectly, then you’d never need art.
BRANDON SANDERSON
The best indication of what human beings will do is not what they think, but what the record says si...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Sequels always have to be bigger.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Plan every battle as if you will inevitably retreat, but fight every battle like there is no backing...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Dalinar Kholin was a connoisseur of death.
Even since his youth, the sight of dead men had been...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You tried to help the people of the market. You mostly failed. This is life. The longer you live, th...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Life was about momentum. Pick a direction and don't let anything—man or storm— turn you a...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Life breaks us, Teft. Then we fill the cracks with something stronger.
BRANDON SANDERSON
What a surreal sensation, being back here, being treated like he was still the boy who had left for ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You are not a heretic, Dalinar Kholin. You are a king, a Radiant, and a father. You are a man with c...
BRANDON SANDERSON
The old Words must be spoken again.
BRANDON SANDERSON
I will take responsibility for what I have done,” Dalinar whispered. “If I must fall, I will ris...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Power was an illusion of perception, as Jasnah had said. The first step to being in control was to s...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Inappropriate?” Pattern said. “Such as … dividing by zero?
BRANDON SANDERSON
To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the mos...
BRANDON SANDERSON
The trick to happiness wasn’t in freezing every momentary pleasure and clinging to each one, but i...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Accept the pain, but don't accept that you deserved it.
BRANDON SANDERSON
NO MATING
BRANDON SANDERSON
Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.
BRANDON SANDERSON
The only point in creating something is to watch it die. Like a story that must come to a climax, wh...
BRANDON SANDERSON
There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person's life. People changed slowly, over time. Yo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Once one becomes a man, he can and must make his own decisions. But I do offer warning. Even a good ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I ask of you your lives,” Elend said, voice echoing, “and your courage. I ask of you your faith,...
BRANDON SANDERSON
What wonders could be achieved, what progress could be made, if mankind were to permanently set asid...
BRANDON SANDERSON
It’s not a lie,” Shallan said, “if everyone understands and knows what it means.”
“Mm...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I wanted to move. I needed to move. But in those moments, I could more easily have lifted a s...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Those who take lightly promises they make to those they love are people who find little lasting sati...
BRANDON SANDERSON
That caravan looks as if it’s all Vorin. Also, you look a little spindly for a Horneater.”
...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Spook smiled. "Elend is a forgetful scholar - twice as bad as Sazed ever was. He gets lost in his bo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Oh, thank you, I thought, feeling an overwhelming sense of relief. Dancing was stressful—but murde...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Men protect things they find important," Galladon said with a shrug. "If you object, you shouldn't h...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Attacking a provincial lord in his manor house, surrounded by guards...Honestly, Kell, I'd nearly fo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Too many of us take great pains with what we ingest through our mouths, and far less with what we pa...
BRANDON SANDERSON
There is something beyond. Though perhaps my belief is merely my own desire wishing it to be so." BRANDON SANDERSON Chana knows, I wondered sometimes how I raised that child without strangling her. By age six, [Jasna...
BRANDON SANDERSON
As accurate as a blind man pissing during an earthquake.”
“Wow...,” I breathed.
She ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Kelsier rapped lightly on the door, and Dockson strolled over, pulling it open.
"And he makes h...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Most of you Mistborn are probably too proud to crawl. I'm surprised you were willing to do so yourse...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You'll want something mid-range. A 5.56 all right?"
"I suppose."
"AR-15?"
"Ugh. AR-15...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Ear demons are totally real," Cody said. "They're what make microphones like these ones work. They'r...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I grunted, hauling the rope hand over hand. A plaintive squeak came from the pulley system with each...
BRANDON SANDERSON
You've never heard of bagpipes?" Cody asked, sounding aghast. "They're as Scottish as kilts a...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Why is it you trust my daughter so much when others almost universally revile her?"
"I consider...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Never go on a date unarmed.” Words of wisdom from my father. Well, my foster father. I was an orph...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Can a woman not walk with her possessions down the street of a city?
BRANDON SANDERSON
The only time you seem honest is when you’re insulting someone!”
“The only honest things ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
But it was important to be rational at all times, not just when calm.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Unknowing ignorance is preferable to informed stupidity.
BRANDON SANDERSON
When did you get so peppy?” she shouted.
“Ever since I assumed I was dead, then I suddenly ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I ain't grouchy,” Teft snapped. “I just have a low threshold for stupidity.
BRANDON SANDERSON
But you know what I think? I think you're looking for excuses to not let go. This thing, it's who yo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
But you know what I think? I think you're looking for excuses to not let go. This ting, it's who you...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Don’t tell anyone I said it?"
I smiled. "I'll be quiet as a buttered snail sneaking through a...
BRANDON SANDERSON
To live was to be a fragment of the cosmere that was experiencing itself.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Are you that afraid of being wrong? One would assume you’d be accustomed to it by now.”
He ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
What kind of woman is still able to trust people after everything she's been through? If she'd been ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
That's kind of what trust is, isn't it? A willful self-delusion.
BRANDON SANDERSON
I once saw a spindly man carrying a stone larger than his head upon his back. He stumbled beneath th...
BRANDON SANDERSON
This world, it is a tempest sometimes. But remember, the sun always rises again.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Authority doesn't come from a rank.," Kaladin said, fingering the spheres in his pocket.
"Where...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Strength does not make one capable of rule; it makes one capable of service.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Somebody has to start. Somebody has to step forward and do what is right, because it is right.
BRANDON SANDERSON
And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Can you feel it? Something just changed. I believe that’s the sound the world makes when it pisses...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Of all the recruits in his cohort, he had learned the quickest. How to hold the spear, how to stand ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
An excuse is what you make after the deed is done, while a justification is what you offer before.
BRANDON SANDERSON
I want you to go back into the barrack and tell the men to come out after the storm. Tell them to lo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
In the end, I must proclaim that no good can be achieved of false means. For the substance of our ex...
BRANDON SANDERSON
If I should die,” Dalinar said, “then I would do so having lived my life right. It is not the de...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Overcome your guilt. Care, but not too much. Take responsibility, but don't blame yourself. Protect,...
BRANDON SANDERSON
There are two kinds of people in this world, son. Those who save lives, and those who take lives." BRANDON SANDERSON Brightness...I believe you stray into sarcasm."

"Funny.I thought I'd run straight into it...
BRANDON SANDERSON
...Do you stop loving someone just because they betray you? I don't think so. That's what makes the ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I told him that you were simply showing me the ways of court. Kind of like an…older brother.” BRANDON SANDERSON We got there without being spotted. I pulled her in, then shut the door, pressing my back to it and ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
The right belief is like a good cloak, I think. If it fits you well, it keeps you warm and safe. The...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Sometimes Vin imagined she was like the ash, or the wind, or the mist itself. A thing without though...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Fantasy has had some problems with being too repetitive, in my opinion. I try to read what other peo...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I died down at that chasm. Now you’ve got my vengeful spirit to deal with.
BRANDON SANDERSON
We're not moments, Megan, you and me. We're events. You say you might not be the same person you wer...
BRANDON SANDERSON
She slumped toward the ground, but I grabbed her and heaved her onto my shoulder, then ran down the ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
In fact, the entire nature of this State seemed to highlight that political power was just an illusi...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Back in my State, I'm very close to being able to control the weather. I'll be all-powerful, once I'...
BRANDON SANDERSON
I’m good at doing things I’m not supposed to,” she said, then kicked the door open.
BRANDON SANDERSON
XinWey’s Doctrine states that the most essential morality of mankind is to create the greatest ...
BRANDON SANDERSON
Well, best to remain vigilant. It’s when everything is calm that you need to be most alert.
BRANDON SANDERSON
On the three-hundredth anniversary of my birth, I finally managed to conquer the world.
BRANDON SANDERSON
Actually, [Wax] said, we came here because we needed someplace safe to think for a few hours."
...
BRANDON SANDERSON