Quotes by Lev Grossman

About Lev Grossman:

Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist, notably the author of the novels Warp (1997), Codex (2004), The Magicians (2009), The Magician King (2011), and The Magician's Land (2014). He is a senior writer and book critic for TIME.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Becoming an author changes your attitude too. Once you see where books come from, and how they're made, they never seem quite as sacred again.

Lev Grossman

One already feels like an anachronism, writing novels in the age of what-ever-this-is-the-age-of, but touring to promote them feels doubly anachronistic. The marketplace is showing an increasing intolerance for the time-honored practice of printing i...

Lev Grossman

And I'm not as young as I once was. At my age, I don't have time to be bored.

Lev Grossman

Emily Greenstreet was one of these girls that nobody ever notices, who are only friends with other girls nobody notices. Nobody likes or dislikes them. They have weak chins, or chicken-pox scars, or their glasses are too big. I know I'm being mean. B...

Lev Grossman

I have a little theory that I'd like to air here, if I may. What is it that you think makes you magicians?" More silence. Fogg was well into rhetorical-question territory now anyway. He spoke more softly. "Is it because you are intelligent? Is it bec...

Lev Grossman

By the standards of magical society they’d fallen at the first hurdle: they hadn’t had the basic good sense to keep their shit to themselves.

Lev Grossman

[F]or just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or y...

Lev Grossman

Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink,” he said. “Though I guess that presupposes that there is a wine I wouldn’t drink.

Lev Grossman

He was obviously one of those people who felt at home in the world — he was naturally buoyant, where Quentin felt like he had to dog-paddle constantly, exhaustingly, humiliatingly, just to get one sip of air.

Lev Grossman

I got my heart's desire, and there my troubles began.

Lev Grossman

As a teenager in Brooklyn Quentin had often imagined himself engaged in martial heroics, but after this he knew, as a cold immutable fact, that he would do anything necessary, sacrificing whatever or whomever he had to, to avoid risking exposure to p...

Lev Grossman

In a way fighting was just like using magic. You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse.

Lev Grossman

The process of learning is a nonstop orgy of wonderment.

Lev Grossman

If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so.

Lev Grossman

If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn't make it so. Words and thoughts don’t change anything. Language and reality are kept strictly apart — reality is tough, unyielding stuff, and it doesn't care what you t...

Lev Grossman

Quentin was thin and tall, though he habitually hunched his shoulders in a vain attempt to brace himself against whatever blow was coming from the heavens, and which would logically hit the tall people first.

Lev Grossman

It's time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost.

Lev Grossman

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 s...

Lev Grossman

You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse.

Lev Grossman

You just had to get some idea of what matters and what doesn't, and how much, and try not to be scared of the stuff that doesn't. Put it in perspective.

Lev Grossman

Author Bio

  • NameLev Grossman
  • DescriptionAmerican novelist, journalist
  • BornJune 26, 1969
  • ProfessionJournalist; Writer