panicked people didn't listen to reason and didn't want to hear the truth.

. . . you worked for Harry King, they said, because a broken leg was bad for business, and Harry King was all about business.

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

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

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!

I've always said fantasy is sort of 'stealth philosophy'.