Top 141 Quotes & Sayings by Robin Hobb
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American writer Robin Hobb.
Last updated on December 25, 2024.
I would say that many of the characters in my stories do not live in true poverty - they are not out on the street; they are not wondering if there will be anything to eat in the next week. They are people who are at the lower echelons of the economic strata.
Writing and reading fiction is, I think, a human effort to make sense of the world.
Fantasy encompasses a wide, wide spectrum of writing. We have beast fables, we have gothics, we have tales of vampires and werewolves, and we have sword and sorcery; we have epics from Homer, and there is just so much out there that we put under the umbrella of 'fantasy.'
Dragons, to my way of thinking, are just another 'race' of sapient characters. We see lots of elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, giants and, of course, dragons.
Sometimes people ask if my books have morals or lessons for readers, and I shudder at that thought. I always say that I have more questions than answers.
I know some people see it as this success when the book is finally made into a movie - that marks its success. I don't see it that way.
I think that my passion for writing fantasy began at about the same time as my passion for reading fantasy.
At what point is a person old enough to say, 'I own my body, and I get to do what I want with it'?
I actually think that short stories transfer to film much better than novels do.
I think ever since I started to read, there have been favorite novels for different stages of my life. And one is never bumped out of place to yield to another. Instead, I just add to my favorite shelves.
Fantasy is my genre and my home in the writing world. I consider it the biggest writing room in all literature, where there are literally no boundaries at all.
Sometimes I regret that the wonderful children's stories that have been made into movies were - people no longer read 'The Wizard of Oz'; they think they know the story. They don't know anything about all the bits and pieces they had to leave out.
I think when writers play with dragons, we are simply doing what fantasy writers have always done.
The challenge is always to find the good place to end the book. The rule I follow with myself is that every book should end where the next book would logically begin. I know that some readers wish that literally all of the threads would be neatly tied off and snipped, but life just doesn't work that way.
Not intending to be funny: I sit at the keyboard, put my fingers on the keys and go. To me, it's the real secret of writing. Put yourself in front of the screen or the blank sheet of paper and get to work.
I think it's really hard to draw a hard-and-fast line and say 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' doesn't count as science fiction or fantasy. Or at what point do we say mythology is not fantasy, so reading mythology when you're young does not count as an exposure to fantasy?
As the character talks and moves, the world around him is slowly revealed, just like dollying a camera back for a wider look at things. So all my stories start with a character, and that character introduces setting, culture, conflict, government, economy... all of it, through his or her eyes.
I think it was always okay to be a geek.
I think there have always been male writers, female writers. As a reader, I never picked up a book and said, 'Oh, I can't read this - it's about a male,' and set it back down.
The fight isn't over until you win.
Diplomacy is the velvet glove that cloaks the fist of power.
That is the challenge Companion. To take what has happened to you and learn from it. Nothing is quite so destructive as pity, especially self-pity. No event in life is so terrible that one cannot rise above it.
Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.
Perhaps having the courage to find a better path is having the courage to risk making new mistakes.
Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own. Wolves have no kings
Death is always less painful and easier than life! You speak true. And yet we do not, day to day, choose death. Because ultimately, death is not the opposite of life, but the opposite of choice. Death is what you get when there are no choices left to make.
I never confuse the cost of something with its value
One can only walk so far from one's true self before the bond either snaps, or pulls one back.
Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterdays. No more than that. And no less.
One must plan for the future and anticipate the future without fearing the future.
Do you not see how strange and wonderful that is? That all history balances on an affair of the human heart?
What a man can take with a sword, a woman can give by her flesh alone. Life.
In that last dance of chances I shall partner you no more. I shall watch another turn you As you move across the floor. In that last dance of chances When I bid your life goodbye I will hope she treats you kindly. I will hope you learn to fly. In that last dance of chances When I know you'll not be mine I will let you go with longing And the hope that you'll be fine. In that last dance of chances We shall know each other's minds. We shall part with our regrets When the tie no longer binds.
Your future. It awaits only you, to live it and to write it. - Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb
Anticipating pain was like enduring it twice. Why not anticipate pleasure instead?
I told you I set no limits on my love for you. I don't. Yet I have never expected you to offer me your body. It was the whole of your heart, all for myself, that I sought. Even though I've never had a right to it. For you gave it away ere ever you saw me.
Stop longing.You poison today’s ease, reaching always for tomorrow.
You seek a false comfort when you demand that I define myself for you with words. Words do not contain or define any person. A heart can, if it is willing.
Remember with your heart. Go back, go back and go back. The skies of this world were always meant to have dragons. When they are not here, humans miss them. Some never think of them, of course. But some children, from the time they are small, they look up at the blue summer sky and watch for something that never comes. Because they know. Something that was supposed to be there faded and vanished. Something that we must bring back, you and I.
Cats talk to whomever they please.
Everyone thinks that courage is about facing death without flinching. But almost anyone can do that. Almost anyone can hold their breath and not scream for as long as it takes to die. True courage is about facing life without flinching. I don't mean the times when the right path is hard, but glorious at the end. I'm talking about enduring the boredom, the messiness, and the inconvenience of doing what is right. ~Amber
The man who must brag for himself knows that no one else will
There is a dead spot in the night, that coldest, blackest time when the world has forgotten evening and dawn is not yet a promise. A time when it is far too early to arise, but so late that going to bed makes small sense.
It's too late to apologize for. I have already forgiven you.
if love doesnt come first and linger after, if love cant wait and endure disappointment and seperation, then its not love.
Most prisons are of our own making. A man makes his own freedom, too.
It's all connected. When you save any part of the world, you've saved the whole world. In fact, that's the only way it can be done.
When considering a man's motives, remember you must not measure his wheat with your bushel. He may not be using the same standard at all.
Love isn't just about feeling sure of the other person, knowing what he would give up for you. It's knowing with certainty what you are willing to surrender for his sake. Make no mistake; each partner gives up something. Individual dreams are surrendered for a shared one.
Look forward, not back. Correct your course and go on. You cannot undo yesterday's journey.
Don’t do what you can’t undo, until you’ve considered what you can’t do once you’ve done it.
Stop thinking of what you intend to do. Stop thinking of what you have just done. Then, stop thinking that you have stopped thinking of those things. Then you will find the Now, the time that stretches eternal, and is really the only time there is.
Silence can ask all the questions, where the tongue is prone to ask only the wrong one.
When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool you end up looking like a moron instead.
We are as we are. How can you claim to know what life I was meant to lead, let alone threaten to force me into it? All your quibbling is nonsense. As well forbid your nose to snuff, or your ears to hear. We are as we do.
Someday is someday, and maybe it will be or maybe it won't. This is a human thing, to worry about things that may or may not come to be. You can't eat meat until you've killed it.
When we come back to fantasy, I think we're actually coming back to the real bedrock of storytelling. Our national or international genre really is fantasy, if you think about the worldwide myths and legends and stories that we all know, whether we're talking about Little Red Riding Hood or the Arabian Nights or Noah's Ark or Hercules. These are stories that cross many cultures in much the same way that dragons cross many cultures.
Boredom is vastly underrated. Boredom means that nothing is trying to kill you every day.
Very little worth knowing is taught by fear.
There is little in life so reassuring as a genuine welcome.
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