The Eleint

Steven Erikson: Here's a secret truth -- I don't like fantasies all about dragons. Never did. Or, more precisely, I don't much like what's been done to them to date. They're not horses, dammit! And I'm not a fan of the AD&D version, either. I never bought breathing fire or any other technically absurd ability. It strikes me (and maybe not with any claim to originality either) that a dragon can only exist via the essence of magic. That's how they fly. That's how they attack. And, by extension, that's how they think and see the world. Thus far, we've been on the edge. They're always busy doing their own stuff. At the same time, they will become much more relevant later in the series. Hopefully in an original way.(Q and A with malazanempire No 2 (2003))