All of a sudden, I sort of started to feel that I was constrained by the characters as opposed to enjoying them. And that remains for me to this day the line that I know where it's like, OK, you're not writing fan fiction anymore.

I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.

What could make the Napoleonic Wars more exciting? Dragons.

The Magicians brilliantly explores the hidden underbelly of fantasy and easy magic, taking what’s simple on the surface and turning it over to show us the complicated writhing mess beneath. It’s like seeing the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter through a 3-D magnifying glass.

Justice is expensive. That is why there is so little of it, and it is reserved for those few with enough money and influence to afford it.

Would you believe it's harder to find a virgin than a unicorn in New York?

Well, I would have struck him, but I would have had to get up. You have no notion how difficult it is to arrange skirts when sitting down it took me five minutes together the first time.

Enough of that, you damned conspirators, you will have us hanged a great deal sooner than we will.

It seems to me that if you wish to apply laws to us, it were only reasonable to consult us on them, and from what you have read to me about Parliament, I do not think any dragons are invited to go there

And we must still try or we would be leaving our friends to fight without us. I think this is what you have meant by duty, all along I do understand, at least this much of it.

Next you will cry about taxation without representation, and throw a basket of tea into the harbor. You are indeed a very Jacobin at heart, and I think I must give up trying to cure you of it I can but wash my hands and deny responsibility

Something about that whole process of building the structure of that game turned into a real kind of lightbulb moment for me as a writer.

I should rather have you than a heap of gold, even if it were very comfortable to sleep on.

Temeraire said, 'It is very nice how many books there are, indeed. And on so many subjects!