His crush went from exciting to depressing, as if he'd gone from the first blush of infatuation to the terminal nostalgia of a former lover without even the temporary relief of an actual relationship in between.
Lev GrossmanRead
A magician is strong because he feels pain. He feels the difference between what the world is and what he would make of it. Or what did you think that stuff in your chest was? A magician is strong because he hurts more than others. His wound is his strength.
Interpretation
A magician's true strength lies in his ability to feel and transform pain into creativity.
This quote suggests that strength comes not from a lack of pain or struggle, but from the ability to endure and utilize those experiences to create something meaningful. The world can be a harsh place, and by acknowledging and feeling this pain, a magician—or any person—can draw inspiration and strength to manifest their vision of reality.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech about overcoming adversity.
His crush went from exciting to depressing, as if he'd gone from the first blush of infatuation to the terminal nostalgia of a former lover without even the temporary relief of an actual relationship in between.
She still had her bad days, no question, when the black dog of depression sniffed her out and settled its crushing weight on her chest and breathed its pungent dog breath in her face. On those days she called in sick to the IT shop where, most days, she untangled tangled networks for a song. On those days she pulled down the shades and ran dark for twelve or twenty-four or seventy-two hours, however long it took for the black dog to go on home to its dark master.
Magic: it was what happened when the mind met the world, and the mind won for a change.
Fanfiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.
More than fantasy or even science fiction, Ray Bradbury wrote horror, and like so many great horror writers he was himself utterly without fear, of anything. He wasn't afraid of looking uncool - he wasn't scared to openly love innocence, or to be optimistic, or to write sentimentally when he felt that way.
It didn’t matter where you were, if you were in a room full of books you were at least halfway home.
He awoke at six, as usual. He needed no alarm clock. He was already comprehensively alarmed.
Anger does not solve anything; it builds nothing.
There is plenty of time to argue with new ideas later. They key is to take careful notes first and debate second.
The struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?
He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.
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