Epic Fiction Quotes & Sayings

We forgive only that which requires forgiveness. To do otherwise is wasteful of grace.
Laniel, Abbot of Bilkar the Furred — Jordan MacLean

In the beginning there was only Darkness. — Karen Azinger

Seek Knowledge, Protect Knowledge, Share Knowledge. — Karen Azinger

You are blessed with a knack for sucking the wonder out of the extraordinary. — Daniel McHugh

But in the end it is only a passing thing ... this shadow. Even darkness must pass. - Samwise Gamgee, The Two Towers — J.R.R. Tolkien

Fantasy novels reveal "emergency escape routes" from reality. Romance novels dish out a banquet of Eye Candy. Otherworldly passion erupts when the two collide in an epic novel of unforgettable characters and dire circumstances. — Sarah J. Pepper

Those who die never truly leave us. They are forever there beyond the shimmering of light at the edge of sight. — Vanna Smythe

Fiction is entertaining. Nonfiction is epic. — A.D. Posey

And there was nothing quite like the surprise attack of a snarling black bear, even one missing all forty-two teeth, to urge someone back to work. Waking up with several hundred mud-encrusted, reeking pounds on top of you - your neck suffering a hickey of epic proportions - just pushed the limits on what was tolerable. — Cole Alpaugh

Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil. - Gandalf the Grey, The Return of the King — J.R.R. Tolkien

President Ronald Reagan, who spent World War II in Hollywood, vividly described his own role in liberating Nazi concentration camp victims. Living in the film world, he apparently confused a movie he had seen with a reality he had not. On many occasions in his Presidential campaigns, Mr. Reagan told an epic story of World War II courage and sacrifice, an inspiration for all of us. Only it never happened; it was the plot of the movie A Wing and a Prayer - that made quite an impression on me, too, when I saw it at age 9. Many other instances of this sort can be found in Reagan's public statements. It is not hard to imagine serious public dangers emerging out of instances in which political, military, scientific or religious leaders are unable to distinguish fact from vivid fiction. — Carl Sagan

A blend of fact and fiction has been used in various forms since the dawn of creative writing, starting with sagas and epic poems. — Antony Beevor

Cut quarrels out of literature, and you will have very little history or drama or fiction or epic poetry left. — Robert Staughton Lynd

We live in the most epic of fantasy worlds. — T.L. Rese

Beauty to beguile, spies to ensnare, and gold, always gold, to tempt, to trap, to control. — Karen Azinger

Careful, mother, or you could end up dangling in another's webs. — Karen Azinger

Expect an army of Vigil drones, nearly as a many Praesidis guards, a Machim ground detachment of super-soldiers and at least one Inquisitor. Oh, and security barriers everywhere. Possibly some of those mechs we met on Helix Retention, too. You Humans have kicked off a shitstorm of epic proportions."

Alex spread her arms wide in an exagerrated shrug. "It's one of our best skills. — G.S. Jennsen

Courage comes in the form of a girl. — Karen Azinger

The rhythm of fraught footsteps and fervent heartbeat orchestrated a symphony of anticipation and dread. — Brian A. McBride

My strings are being pulled, this time by a different puppet master. — Emilyann Girdner

There was love, a reliable and real love grown in a handful of days, and Tristan did not know why it was: friendship had happened to both of them, on the sudden, completely aside from Tristan's both endangering and saving Crissand's life.
It was no reason related to that, it was no reason that either of them quite knew. Crissand had simply risen on his horizon like the sun of his banner ... and that was that ... They were together, and there was a great deal right with the day simply in that. — C.J. Cherryh

Life was a destiny waiting to be seized. — Karen Azinger

One can lose themselves in the twilight, when there are no colors to guide the way. — Vanna Smythe

Isn't it amazing?" I asked. "How the ocean bows to the moon."
"Some people believe that it is the lure of the moon that compels the ocean's waves to swell. I believe that it's the ocean's dance that entices the moon's rays to shine upon it, — Nicole Gulla

It will begin with the six who now tread the streets of a city where the stone pinnacle erects like a reed amongst long grass. Where a bridge expands across a gorge, drifts a cloud buzzing with a million stings. There, these six shall bleed. There, these six shall die, and like a plague shall spread the wings that carry the cloud till they consume the city, and with it, the strength that fuels all of your lives. Farewell, children of the new world, and may your deaths be swift. — Najeev Raj Nadarajah

My thoughts of you never do you justice. — Nicole Gulla

Since 1977, there have been many science fiction movies, but none has managed to equal [ A New Hope 's] blend of adventure, likable characters, and epic storytelling. — James Berardinelli

We've seen firsthand the footprints of the Mordant's treachery. — Karen Azinger

History presents the pleasantest features of poetry and fiction,
the majesty of the epic, the moving accidents of the drama, the surprises and moral of the romance. Wallace is a ruder Hector; Robinson Crusoe is not stranger that Croesus; the Knights of Ashby never burnish the page of Scott with richer lights of lance and armor than the Carthaginians, winding down the Alps, cast upon Livy. — Robert Aris Willmott

Not that length and weight alone indicate excellence; many epic tales are pretty much epic crap. — Stephen King

Most tales carry a kernel of truth, else they're soon forgotten. — Karen Azinger

But how can I let him just walk away with a smile on my face and a slap on his back when every cell in my body is tied painfully to him, and I can't breathe when I think of him being away from me?! — Llarjme

The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and be able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. — J.R.R. Tolkien

Reflections of the battlements shimmered in the deep green moat, casting an image of enduring strength, an image that defied the very siege of time. — Karen Azinger

I thought that it was more likely the opposite. I must have shut grief out. Found it in books. Cried over fiction instead of the truth. The truth was unconfined, unadorned. There was no poetic language to it, no yellow butterflies, no epic floods. There wasn't a town trapped underwater or generations of men with the same name destined to make the same mistakes. The truth was vast enough to drown in. — Nina LaCour

The hard truths are the ones to hold tight. - Old Bear — George R R Martin

She paused in the doorway, tipping her head to consider Brittany, who only glared. "You're right. I think most girls don't look like the tooth fairy dresses them every day. — Wendy Knight

For Honor and the Octagon! — Karen Azinger

For if there were a list of cosmic things that unite us, reader and writer, visible as it scrolled up into the distance, like the introduction to some epic science-fiction film, then shining brightly on that list would be the fact that we exist in a financial universe that is subject to massive gravitational pulls from states. States tug at us. States bend us. And, tirelessly, states seek to determine our orbits. — Mohsin Hamid

In a sense, you're always mythologizing your life; it's always an effort to make yourself epic. At least in fiction you can lie and sort of justify your delusion about your "epicness." But when you're writing a memoir, you're trying to make your life epic and it's not - nobody's life is. — Sherman Alexie

How do you get the happy ending? John Irving ought to know. One of my favorite authors, Irving writes these multigenerational epics of fiction that somehow work out in the end. How does he do it? He says, 'I always begin with the last sentence ; then I work my way backwards, through the plot, to where the story should begin.' Thst sounds like a lot of work, especially compared to the fantasy that great writers sit down and just go where the story takes them. Irving lets us know that good stories and happy endings are more intentional than that.
Most 20 something's can't write the last sentence of their lives. But when pressed, they usually can identify things they want in their 30s or 40s or 60s -or things they don't want- and work backward from there. This is how you have your own multigenerational epic with a happy ending. This is how you live your life in real time. — Meg Jay

With every fall of the sun and rise of the moon, I can hear it. The Prophecy. It echoes through the halls of time. It is written on the surface of every star. Even the sun and moon cannot withhold the news of the second coming. I hear it. And I fear it. — Brian A. McBride

You think I could meet the most amazing person and not know how I could see her again? — Nicole Gulla

He clicked the Save button, and there was the sound of a trumpet fanfare. A cleverly designed Flash animation in emerald green illuminated in gold leapt out at him in a 3D effect like the titles of an epic film:

WELCOME, ASH, TO BIG BROTHER, THE AVENGER!

The words exploded in a shower of gold dust. A voice boomed chillingly, 'If you want help to sort them out, look no further! Big Brother will avenge you! — Tracey Morait

It would ha' been a good deal easier, if ye'd only been a witch. — Diana Gabaldon

Like seduction, the Priestess took poisoning to an art form. — Karen Azinger

Splendor was the decree of the day. — Karen Azinger

I was writing novels at eight. It was a science fiction epic, which went by the unimprovable title of 'Another Kind of Warrior.' I'd write it beginning to end, but when I'd finished it, I was another year older. The quality of writing and thought changed radically, so I'd start it again. I re-wrote that same book until I was 16. — Neil Cross

Sefalin coddled his father's head in his lap. The old man's eyes were becoming glassy. Reminded of the elves, Lozane said, "Have you done as they say, my boy? Have you dredged up the Coda Uma and let it go to that blackheart Helix?"
Tears burst from Prince Sefalin's eyes. He couldn't speak, just nodded. His lips flushed a deeper purple. His hair was matted to his reddened forehead by blood. From head to toe he wore spatters and blotches of cadaverous slime and melting snowflakes. A vein in his temple throbbed hotly while mucus dripped from his nose. — Leonard Mokos

I don't think the latest Star Wars pictures have any artistic intentions, but the original picture opened up epic science fiction. — William Monahan

This is the beginning of a new time," Torius said, "a great moment for us. One of us has learnt the Tongue and freed a princess. I have saved him and killed the guards. No longer will we be slaves. No longer will the guards tell us what to do. No longer will we listen. We will fight till we get what we want!"
A roar exploded from the children around him.
"This is a revolution," Torius went on. "You all remember the pain that you have felt when the guards have touched you. You all know the shame we carry within us at being treated like this. No more! We will stand! — Y.K. Willemse

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
- Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring — J.R.R. Tolkien

The only wand you'll ever need is a better-feeling thought. — C.G. Rousing

There are demons within. And they're the deadliest kind. — Karren Renz Sena

We don't tend to write about disease in fiction - not just teen novels but all American novels - because it doesn't fit in with our idea of the heroic romantic epic. There is room only for sacrifice, heroism, war, politics and family struggle. — John Green