"What Louis had said about the mystery. He has always been a reflection of what one brings to him. So if you came to him with violence or lust in your heart, that was what was reflected back. But if you came to him with goodness, without evil… Nobody was perfect, but if you really tried to be good and approached him, then he’d be good for you – wouldn’t he?"

"Those gospels of theirs – if you look hard enough through them, you can find a passage to forbid anything you want, and another to condone the same thing."

"What hole did people like that crawl out of?"

"“It scares me.” “But only because you don’t understand. The unknown doesn’t have to be grim.”"

"It was so simple that she could have wept. The mystery was only what you brought to him."

"“I don’t need to be saved,” she said softly."

"“Thank God you’re okay,” she murmured into Ali’s ear. “Let’s thank ourselves,” Ali said. “We’re the ones that did it.”"

"“I don’t care what he told you. He’s an asshole, plain and simple.” “Well, then how’d you get to know him?” “Even assholes come in handy sometimes. You ever try to take a shit through your nose?”"

"There is no power in the world, not that of any religion’s god or mystery, that can change people from being what they are. The world’s history – what little we have recorded of it – proves that beyond a doubt."

"Feel sorry for yourself, regret the things you’ve done and the things you’ll never get to do. But just remember that you aren’t what you were, but what you are now."

"But while the tale itself, its truth, is of the utmost importance, it is the telling that allows it to be remembered or forgotten. The trueness of the telling is what makes up a storyteller’s craft."

"There's enough weirdness in the world as it is without having to give it supernatural trappings, don't you think?"

"Maybe he didn’t know about magic, but he knew about weird."

"There are few joys to compare with the telling of a well-told tale."

"All of the mysteries were represented, but it was up to the reader to discover which, out of those thousands of volumes, held a kernel of truth, and which were out-and-out quackeries."

"“What in God’s name….” “I don’t know ’bout you,” Wilson said, “but I don’t think God’s got a whole lot to do with this place.”"

"I can remember the first time you told me about what the Church did to the mystery. The one they called Jesus – the Green Man they hung from a tree in the desert. How St. Paul took the mystery and twisted it to make a religion of intolerance and self-torment."

"If you understand, things are just as they are. If you do not understand, things are just as they are."

"Nothing’s different, but everything has changed."

"That was the trouble with not paying attention to money. It was never there when you needed it."

"Life’s like art. You have to work hard to keep it simple and still have meaning."

"The best artists know what to leave out. They know how much of the support should show through as the pigment is applied, what details aren’t necessary."

"While he was out of the room, Tucker sauntered over to the worktable and had a look at the poetry. He read a line here and there, but couldn’t make a lot of sense out of any of it. That was the trouble with poems. It seemed you had to have a doctorate just to understand the references. Still. Some of it had a nice ring to it. …like Manjushri, I have met death, and bear my own victory, though not a sword… Nice. Yeah. If you knew what the hell it meant."

"By enlarging your knowledge of things, you will find your knowledge of self is enlarged."

"And just because she and her uncle were loaded, that didn’t automatically make them useless as human beings."

"Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?"

"Watching him, Sara knew that what he said was ninety percent bravado. Still there was nothing wrong with that. Bravery was in knowing the odds and still going against them."

"“Compromise is necessary,” Max agreed, “so long as you never give up who you are. That isn’t compromise; that’s spiritual death. You have to remain true to yourself.”"

"“Sometimes it feels like we’re living in the middle of a comic book. You know what I mean?” “All too well.” “Thing I always ask,” Tucker said, “is where’s Superman when you need him?”"

"“But it’s always been that way. The leaders that men follow must always do away with the leaders that went before. ‘Great Pan is dead!’ They cried – not because he was dead, but because they wanted him to be dead.”"

"When you’re invisible, no one can see that you’re different."

"You can talk all you want about consensual reality, Jilly, but that doesn’t change the fact that some things are real and some things aren’t. There’s a line drawn between the two that separates reality from fantasy."

"A long time ago a bunch of people reached a general consensus as to what’s real and what’s not and most of us have been going along with it ever since."

"That dichotomy between who she was and who she thought she should be was what really killed her."

"There are people who take the heart out of you, and there are people who put it back."

"I had the same questions for Superman as I did for God: If he was so powerful, why didn’t he deal with some real problems? Why didn’t he stop wars, feed the starving in Ethiopia, cure cancer? At least God had the Church to do His PR work for Him — if you can buy their reasoning, they have any number of explanations ranging from how the troubles of this life build character to that inarguable catchall, “God’s will.” And the crap in this life sure makes heaven look good. When I was growing up, the writers and artists of Superman never even tried to deal with the problem. And since they didn’t, I could only see Superman as a monster, not a hero. I couldn’t believe his battles with criminals, superpowered geniuses and the like. I never believed in God either."

"Only fools think they’re wise; the rest of us just muddle through as we can."

"Our time’s the most precious thing we’ve got to offer folks, and the worst thing a body can do is to take it away from us."

"“Often,” he says, “what we take from the spirit world is only a reflection of what lies inside ourselves.”"

"The real problem is, people think life is a ladder, and it’s really a wheel."

"Wisdom never comes to those who believe they have nothing left to learn."

"There are three kinds of kids: the ones that are the odd birds, the ones that pissed on them, and the ones that watched it happen."

"“You’re confusing me.” “But not deliberately so,” Coyote says. “Let it go on record that any confusion arose simply because we lacked certain commonalities of reference.”"

"It’s the questions we ask, the journey we take to get to where we are going that’s more important than the actual answer. It’s good to have mysteries. It reminds us that there’s more to the world than just making do and having a bit of fun."

"Everybody makes the same mistake. Fortune-telling doesn’t reveal the future; it mirrors the present. It resonates against what your subconscious already knows and hauls it up out of the darkness so that you can get a good look at it."

"What I’ve got to talk about, I don’t think a priest wants to hear. What does a priest know or care about secular concerns? All they want to talk about is God. All they want to hear is a tidy list of sins so that they can prescribe their penances and get on to the next customer."

"It was the old story, he realized. Everything, everybody wanted to lay claim to a piece of your soul. And if they couldn’t have it, they made you pay for it in guilt."

"She’s always so ready to believe anything that anyone tells her, so long as it’s magical. Well, I believe in magic, too, but it’s the magic that can turn a caterpillar into a butterfly, the natural wonder and beauty of the world that’s all around me. I can’t believe in some dreamland being real."

"I find that a lot of people have this thing about making crap romantic, the way they like to blur outlaws and heroes, the good with the bad."