"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it."

[eachase.livejournal.com]

So, I recently read _So You Want to Be a Wizard_ by Diane Duane in which I came across the line, "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it."

I feel like I've come across that line before. Possibly in one of the QT books. But I don't have eBook versions, so I cannot easily confirm or debunk my hypothesis.

So, my questions are:
1. Am I just mis-remembering?
2. Or does the line "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it" appear in one of the QT books?
3. If so, is it a case of that being the sort of line that authors who enjoy word play and twisting common phrases are likely to write independently?
4. Or is it a deliberate Easter Egg referece to _So You Want to Be a Wizard_?

Comments

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

Yes!! That line is in Thick as Thieves!! Kamet says it to Costis after Costis has given all their money to Godekker and haven’t immediately found an Attolian ship in the harbor.

(Person who listens to TaT audiobook on repeat and can hear it in Steve West’s Kamet voice 🙋)

I’m inclined to say yes to your #3 question but I don’t know the other book or author or MWT’s potential connection to them!

[eachase.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm glad my memory isn't completely defective. Thanks, @cannonisrelative!

_So you want_ was originally published in 1983, so it predates anything MWT published, and thus it's possible she'd come across it.

Diane Duane isn't an author I remember MWT citing as a big influence, but she and Duane have both participated in CrossingsCon (Duane every year it's been held). But that only got started in 2016.

I think that #3 is more likely than #4, but I'd be happy to be wrong.

[qwentoozla]

I think this phrase predates both of these excellent authors--the first quotation cited on Wiktionary is from 1941. :) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/burn_that_bridge_when_one_comes_to_it