Raymond E. Feist Quotations

I've never worried about 'the reader' because there isn't one. There are thousands, and they all have strong opinions, from 'Magician' was the best ever,' and I've gone downhill since to 'The new book is the best ever,' so to whom to I listen? So I write for myself and hope other people like it.

Either systems are in balance or they are falling apart. If people are acting in what appears to be a twisted way, I want to know the reason for that.

All the Midkemia stories are part of a 'history of an imaginary place,' so I've always known the cycle covered five rift wars. I just got to the end after 30 books. So there was no particular inspiration, save it was time to finish the whole shebang.

I don't like fantasy where a king snaps his fingers and suddenly a whole army appears and goes off to war - he's got to feed them, he's got to pay them, he's got to take care of the camp followers and the gamblers and the people who cause disorder.

Writing is not a competitive sport. Everyone that writes has his or her own voice.

When you talk about fantasy, the usual problem is that whilst you've got the world of imagination, there are no controlling forces.

People like rules, or at least the appearance of rules, even in fantasy.

One of the key issues will be personal honour vs. the good of the many, and unforeseen consequences.

As a kid, I sat transfixed watching Ray Harryhausen's '7th Voyage of Sinbad.'

Mostly I'm writing about people, so I feel constrained to take with me my view of people, my curiosity about how people choose the things they do and why they come to certain decisions in a certain fashion and all the things that drive most writers.