Brandon Sanderson

I grunted, hauling the rope hand over hand. A plaintive squeak came from the pulley system with each draw, as if I had strapped some unfortunate mouse to a torture device and was twisting with glee.

I set the coffee aside and got a cup of water instead. I could never see why people drank that stuff. It tasted like soil boiled in mud, wit a topping of dirt.

I__ going to destroy you, little man!" Sourcefield yelled after me. "I__l rip you apart like a piece of tissue paper in a hurricane!""Wow," I said, reaching an intersection and taking cover by an old mailbox."What?" Tia asked."That was a really good metaphor.

The buzzing was like the eager purr of a muscle car that had just been started, but left in neutral. That was another of Cody__ metaphors for it; I__ said the sensation felt like an unbalanced washing machine filled with a hundred epileptic chimpanzees. Pretty proud of that one.

In the end, after kingdoms and armies had fallen, the religions were still fighting, weren't they?

Well, best to remain vigilant. It__ when everything is calm that you need to be most alert.

Most people are surprised to hear how they really sound, as the American media uses the call of the red-tailed hawk when showing an eagle. They don__ think the eagle sounds regal enough. And so we lie to ourselves about the very identity of our national icon . . .

Entropy shakes its angry fist at you for being clever enough to organize the world. (p 2)

How quickly we come around,' Sazed whispered. 'It wasn't long ago that men were forced to watch the Lord Ruler cut the heads from innocent people. Now we do it to ourselves.

Lightsong met the man's eyes, then smiled broadly, looking down at the God King. "My life to yours," Lifesong said. "My breath become yours.

He was a man. Just a man. Yet, you always knew he'd succeed. He made you be what he wanted you to be.

we're all freaks sometimes, Melody," he replied. "You're just... well, better at it than most.

Seen like that, he was just a shadow; darkness, a nothingness, before real power. The men of this world, epics included, would pass from time. I might be a worm to him, but he was a worm himself in the grand scheme of the universe.

Emergency? Knighthawk sent. I__ just bored.I blinked, holding my phone and rereading that text.Bored? I sent. You__e literally spying on the entire world, Knighthawk. You can read anyone__ mail, listen to anyone__ phone calls.First, it__ not the whole world, he wrote. Only large chunks of North and Central America. Second, do you have any idea how mind-numbingly DULL most people are?I started a reply, but a flurry of messages came at me, interrupting what I was going to say.Oh! Knighthawk wrote. Look at this pretty flower!Hey. I want to know if you like me, but I can__ say that, so here__ an awkward flirtation instead.Where are you?I__ here.Where?Here.There?No, here.Oh.Look at my kid.Look at my dog.Look at me.Look at me holding my kid and dog.Hey, everyone. I took a huge koala this morning.Barf. The world is ruled by deific beings who can do stuff like melt buildings into puddles of acid, and all people can think of to do with their phones is take pictures of their pets and try to figure out how to get laid.

There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person's life. People changed slowly, over time. You didn't take on step, then find yourself in a completely new location. You first took a little step off a path to avoid some rocks. For a while, you walked alongside the path, but then you wandered out a little way to step on softer soil. Then you stopped paying attention as you drifted farther and farther away. Finally, you found yourself in the wrong city, wondering why the signs on the roadway hadn't led you better.

It was rather difficult to throw a game when you had no idea what you were doing to win it in the first place.

What do you know?___lmost everything. That almost part can be a real kick in the teeth sometimes.___hat do you want, then?___hat I can__ have._ Wit turned to him, eyes solemn. __ame as everyone else, Kaladin Stormblessed.

I ain't grouchy,_ Teft snapped. __ just have a low threshold for stupidity.