The Ring passed to Isildur, who had this one chance to destroy evil forever, but the hearts of men are easily corrupted. And the ring of power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur, to his death. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge. Until, when chance came, the ring ensnared a new bearer. - Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings

"[The sorting hat] only put me in Gryffindor," said Harry in a defeated voice, "because I asked not to go in Slytherin…""Exactly," said Dumbledore, beaming once more. "Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." - JK Rowling

Be clear on every character’s agenda in a scene, and the agendas in conflict. Before you write, take just a moment to jot down what each character in the scene wants, even if (as kurt Vonnegut once said) it is only a glass of water. - James Scott Bell

At the heart of every story is conflict. Whether external or internal, make it a good one, and remember that this problem is going to shape your character, leaving her forever changed. - Jennifer McMahon

I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book. - Ann Patchett

My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play in it, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many. - J.R.R. Tolkien

The way to tell a really big story, I think, is to tell a really small story. - Bruce Feiler

Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down. - Hector Berlioz

Magic happens between the notes. - Linda Bott

Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are. - Joss Whedon

One brain’s blueprint may promote joy more readily than most; in another, pessimism reigns. Whether happiness infuses or eludes a person depends, in part, on the DNA he has chanced to receive. - Thomas Lewis