I'd grown up an athletic child, a competitive soccer player since age 4, with stints ranging from months to years in gymnastics, softball, volleyball. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
I am a firm believer that a good plot makes for a fun enough read, but it's not what binds us. If we don't care about the characters, we won't care – not in a lasting way – about what's happening to them. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
I think a lot of writers are tempted to add complexity by over-complicating things, but always remember that most natural rules/laws are, at their core, simple. Start simple, and build from there, or you risk getting yourself and your readers tangled. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
As for advice for aspiring authors, the best I can give is to be brave. It sounds like a simple enough thing, but it's not. Rejection is such an integral part of this journey, and it never goes away. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
So many people think that if you're writing fantasy, it means you can just make everything up as you go. Want to add a dragon? Add a dragon! Want some magic? Throw it in. But the thing is, regardless of whether you're dealing with realism or fantasy, every world has rules. Make sure to establish a natural order. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
Fencing is a game of living chess, a match where reflexes only work in combination with intent, and mind and body must work together at every moment. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
It's always hard, when introducing readers to a new world/set of rules, not to lay it all out manual-style in the opening chapters but make sure to put the action and the characters at the front. If people don't become invested in them and in the story, the world in which it's set will become a burden. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
Young people like to think they're invincible. They don't like to face any situation where they've gotten weaker instead of stronger. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
NATO was built to counteract the Soviet Union in its day and time. At this point there is no threat coming from the Soviet Union, because there is no Soviet Union anymore. And where there was the Soviet Union once, there is now a number of countries, among them the new and democratic Russia. Vladimir Putin
You have to let the world speak to you and then you speak, you know, so I'm in that moment now where I'm finding the world's voice. K'naan
You have a feeling when you're recording, like, 'This is gonna translate really well,' and when you see it live, and it kind of proves that, that's an amazing feeling. Zac Brown
My dad died, I think, at 87. So I'll be lucky if I make 87. But in a lot of cases, the younger people live longer than their parents. And they know more. My dad used to tell me he ate the hog from his rooter to his tooter. So do I when I'm not trying to lose weight. B. B King