a few excerpts from Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (aka, the best author in the world);
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"What....what are you?" The guard's voice had lost its certainty. "Spirit or man?"
"What am I?" Szeth whispered, a bit of light leaking from his lips as he looked past the man down the long hallway. "I'm...sorry."
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When she drew, she didn't feel as if she worked with only charcoal and paper... Her medium was the soul itself.
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"I see. And this is how you would respond if the Almighty appeared to you here? All this formality and bowing?"
She hesitated. "Well, no."
"Ah, and how would you react?"
"I suspect with screams of pain."
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"Today," King Elhokar announced, riding beneath the bright open sky, "is an excellent day to slay a god. Wouldn't you say?"
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"...What about you, young prince Renarin? Your father wishes for me to leave you alone. Can you speak, yet say nothing ridiculous?"
Eyes turned toward Renarin, who stood right behind his brother. Renarin hesitated, his eyes opening wide at the attention. Dalinar grew tense.
"Nothing ridiculous," Renarin said slowly.
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"I once saw a spindle man carrying a stone larger than his head upon his back. He stumbled beneath the weight, shirtless under the sun, wearing only a loincloth. He tottered down a busy thoroughfare.
People made way for him. not because they sympathize with him, but because they fear the momentum of his steps. You dared not impede on one such as this.
The monarch is like this man, stumbling along, the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders. Many give way for him, but so few are willing to step in and help carry the stone."