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 Face • People • Situation • Think • Weaker • Young
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 Advice • Best • Brave • Integral Part • Journey • Rejection • Simple • Simple Enough Thing • Sounds
I love being new places and hate getting there, and have been known to say on multiple occasions that I would give anything from a piece of my soul to a limb to a portion of my life savings to teleport. Especially when bad weather keeps me off planes. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab Bad Weather Keeps • Hate • Known • Life • Love • Me • Multiple Occasions • New Places • Planes • Soul • Weather
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 Dragon • Fantasy • Fantasy Every World • Go • Magic • Many People • People • Realism • Regardless • Sure • Thing • Think • Whether • World • Writing
I still get rejections – frequently – and my goal isn't to never fail, to never be turned down, but simply to succeed more often than I don't. And in order to do that, I have to constantly put myself out there, to judgment, critique, and rejection. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab Constantly • Critique • Down • Fail • Goal • Myself • Order • Rejection • Rejections • Simply • Succeed • Turned
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 Care • Characters • Enough • Firm Believer • Fun • Fun Enough • Good • Good Plot • I Am • Lasting Way • Way
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 Complexity • Lot • Natural • Overcomplicating Things • Readers • Remember • Simple • Start • Think • Writers • Yourself
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 Age • Athletic • Athletic Child • Child • Competitive Soccer Player • Months • Soccer • Stints Ranging • Up • Years
I almost always start with setting! I have to know the world before I know how to populate it. I have a tendency to play with doors – between life and death, human and monster, mundane and magic – and with 'ADSOM,' I knew I wanted to play with the physical doors between worlds. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab Death • Doors • Doors Between • Life • Magic • Start • Tendency • World
I was fourteen, watching 'The Princess Bride' for the 254321th time, captivated by Wesley and Inigo dueling on the cliff-top. I had never held a sword in my life, but I phoned my mum and said, 'I want to learn to fence!' Victoria Elizabeth Schwab Bride • Clifftop • Life • Mum • My Life • Princess • Princess Bride • Sword • Th Time • Time
It's not what people do that matters, it's why they do it. Victoria Elizabeth Schwab Matters • People • Why
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 Action • Hard • Introducing Readers • New • New World • People • Rules • Set • Story • World
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 Body • Combination • Fencing • Game • Intent • Living Chess • Match • Mind • Moment • Reflexes • Together • Work
The world continues to offer glittering prizes to those who have stout hearts and sharp swords. Frederick Edwin Smith Continues • Glittering • Hearts • Offer • Prizes • Sharp • Swords • Who • World
Good God, do you mean to say this place is a club? Frederick Edwin Smith Club • God • Good • Mean • Place • Say • You
I can only assume that your editorial writer tripped over the First Amendment and thought it was the office cat. Elwyn Brooks White Amendment • Cat • Editorial • First • First Amendment • I Can • Office • Thought • Writer
I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that doesn't have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular, although many men are born upright. Elwyn Brooks White Born • Man • Many • Men • Nonpolitical • Perpendicular • Piece • Political • Slant • Upright • Way • Writing
The world organization debates disarmament in one room and, in the next room, moves the knights and pawns that make national arms imperative. Elwyn Brooks White Debates • Disarmament • Knights • Make • Next • One • Organization • Room • World
It is easier for a man to be loyal to his club than to his planet; the bylaws are shorter, and he is personally acquainted with the other members. Elwyn Brooks White Bylaws • Club • Easier • He • Loyal • Man • Personally • Planet • Shorter
English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education – sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street. Elwyn Brooks White Across • Education • English • Judgment • Luck • Mere • More • Sheer • Sometimes • Street • Taste • Usage
The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war. Elwyn Brooks White Become • Before • Eighteen • Father • Time • War • Years
One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy. Elwyn Brooks White Enemy • Most • Things • Time-Consuming • Timeconsuming Things
To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year. Elwyn Brooks White Christmas • Difficult • Every Year • Through • Wrappings • Year
Commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim. Elwyn Brooks White Act • Circus • Fall • Knives • New • Precision • Victim • Yorker
The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change and we all instinctively avoid it. Elwyn Brooks White Avoid • Change • Common • Instinctively • Long • Long Run • Only • Run • Sense
When I was a child people simply looked about them and were moderately happy; today they peer beyond the seven seas, bury themselves waist deep in tidings, and by and large what they see and hear makes them unutterably sad. Elwyn Brooks White Beyond • Child • Child People Simply • Deep • Happy • Moderately Happy Today • People • Sad • Today
A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus. Elwyn Brooks White Farmer • Good • Good Farmer • Handy • Humus • Less • Man • More • Nothing • Sense
It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Elwyn Brooks White Comes • Friend • Good • Often • Someone • True • True Friend
The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind. Elwyn Brooks White Childhood • Doorway • Full • Mind • Never • Open • People • World
Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car. Elwyn Brooks White Car • Everything • Life • Somewhere • You
Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men. Elwyn Brooks White Luck • Men • Mention • Presence • Selfmade Men • Something • You
We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry. Elwyn Brooks White Grapes • Joy • Laundry • Long • Only • Run • Run Gives Us
I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. Elwyn Brooks White Bright • Feel • Future • Her • Less Time • Man • Nature • Optimistic • Time
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it. Elwyn Brooks White Dies • Few • Frog • Humor • Like • People
Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one. Elwyn Brooks White Cracked Pot • Found • Genius • Intelligence • More • Often • One • Pot • Whole
There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement. Elwyn Brooks White Agreement • Countries • Disagreement • Likely • Nothing • People • Start
Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar. Elwyn Brooks White Act • Faith • Grammar • Trick • Writing
I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens. Elwyn Brooks White Chickens • Discouraging Literature • Know • Literature • More • Which
Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts. Elwyn Brooks White Facts • Form Opinions • Funny • Great • Opinions • Time • You
There's no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another. Elwyn Brooks White Account • Always • Complicated • Complicated Things • Get • Limit • One • Thing • Things
I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel. Elwyn Brooks White Ferris Wheel • I See • Nothing • See • Space • View • Wheel
The trouble with the profit system has always been that it was highly unprofitable to most people. Elwyn Brooks White Always • Highly Unprofitable • Most • People • Profit • Profit System • Trouble
Whatever else an American believes or disbelieves about himself, he is absolutely sure he has a sense of humor. Elwyn Brooks White Absolutely Sure • American • American Believes • Himself • Humor • Sense • Sense Of Humor
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. Elwyn Brooks White Democracy • Half • People • Politics • Recurrent • Right • Suspicion • Time
Writing is hard work and bad for the health. Elwyn Brooks White Bad • Hard Work • Health • Work • Writing
A writer is like a bean plant – he has his little day, and then gets stringy. Elwyn Brooks White Bean • Day • He • Like • Little • Little Day • Plant • Stringy • Writer
All we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days. Elwyn Brooks White Days • Ill • Knowingly • Meteorologist • Need • Once • One • Over • Skin • Walks Bent • Weather • Wet Days • Without
Victoria Elizabeth Schwab
Frederick Edwin Smith
Elwyn Brooks White
