Orson Scott Card

I will love you forever, he thought. I am lying, he thought, and this time he was right

Nobody ever completely means what they say. Even when they think they're telling the truth, there's always something hidden behind their words.

The danger that keeps me just a little frightened with every book I write, however, is that I'll overreach myself once too often and try to write a story that I'm just plain not talented or skilful enough to write. That's the dilemma every storyteller faces. It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try.

I don't hate you, I love you, you're part of myself, you're my heart and when you go it's my heart torn out and carried away--

No book, however good, can survive a hostile reading.

Everyone dies. Everyone leaves. What matters is the things you build together before they go. What matters is the part of them that continues in you when they're gone.

If desire did not dim the brain, nobody would ever get married, drunk, or fat. ~Val

If I wanted to doubt, then I could doubt endlessly, but at some point a person has to stop questioning and act, and at that point you have to trust something to be true. You have to act as if something is true, and so you choose the thing you have the most reason to believe in, you have to live in the world that you have the most hope in.

You know how writers are... they create themselves as they create their work. Or perhaps they create their work in order to create themselves.

A duel is just two murders who agree to take turns trying to kill each other.

Ender nodded. It was a lie, of course, that it wouldn’t hurt a bit. But since adults always said it when it was going to hurt, he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.

Ender understood more than she said. Manipulation of gravity was one thing; deception by the officers was another; but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.

Maybe that's all demons ever are. People like us, doing things without even knowing what we're doing.

It is in the turmoil of chaos that we discover what, if anything, we are.

From now on the enemy is more clever than you. From now on the enemy is stronger than you. From now on you are always about to lose.

If the other fellow can't tell you his story, you can never be sure he isn't trying to kill you.

I have hope for you, if only because you're the only one left to hope for.

But Father has also taught him: Treat a man as if he had a fine reputation to protect, and he will usually endeavor to deserve it.

Oh, I'll live Ender's life, too. It's so much more interesting than my own." ~Val

"We've devoted our lives to learning about them!" Miro said. Ender stopped. "Not from them."

I will never hurt you. I will always help you. If you are hungry Ill give you my food. If you are frightened I am your friend. I love you now. And love does not end.