Daydream Believer

"Everyone dreams, indeed, at night. But there are two types of dreamers, my friend, those who dream at night and those who dream in the day... Nighttime dreams are for release, say some, a purging of the worries or a fanciful flight to no end. Those who dream in the night alone are doomed to mundanity, don't you see? The ordinary. The mediocre. Night dreamers do not concern me because there is nowhere for them to rise. But those who dream by day... those, my friend, are the troublesome ones. Daydreamers alone are truly alive, for daydreamers alone find perspective in existence and seek ways to rise above the course of simple survival. To live and not merely survive - that secret is in your heart, if only you are wise enough to look."

~ R. A. Salvatore

This quote is from a book I finished last week. I started reading (and fell in love with) R.A. Salvatore novels somewhere around 9th or 10th grade, and although they're essentially cheesy fantasy novels that I should have left in high school with flannel shirts and my overuse of the word "whatever!", I'm so hooked to the characters and stories Salvatore creates and so in awe of his literary genius that I can't bear not reading his latest works. The quote above is from a recently released book that probably few have read (The Promise of the Witch King - cover shown at right) and takes place in the novel when an optimistic and opportunistic dark elf mercenary (Jarlaxle Dearthe) is asking his friend, a reformed human assassin (Artemis Entreri), about his lack of motivation for their current adventure. No surprise that one of the things I love most about Salvatore is his ability to write dialog that transcends the characters situations and speaks to reader's hearts. Among his great quotes from other novels are:

"There is no pain greater than losing something - or someone - before truly recognizing it's value"

"It is one thing to know one's heart and another to admit it. It is another thing entirely different to follow it."

And there's lots more too but those are my favorites (and the only ones I can remember right now). Brilliant, eh? With the popularity of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter I'm guessing that more people might be open to reading fantasy novels so for anyone looking to check out Salvatore's books I recommend The Crystal Shard (his first published novel from 1988) or Homeland (a prequel that starts in with back story from his most popular character) as a great place to start. I've read and enjoyed all of his novels published in the TSR/Wizards of the Coast: Forgotten Realms series and I know that makes me an even bigger nerd than when I was calculating how much caffeine there was per milliliter in Mountain Dew but that's me. Crazy, nerdy, caffeinated.