"Shadow shrugged. He could see nothing romantic in a death sentence. If you didn’t have a death sentence, he decided, …"

"There are always places to go further down. Life goes on. And second, if you just hang in there, someday they’re goin…"

"If Hell is other people, thought Shadow, then Purgatory is airports."

"Like I said, don't piss off those bitches in the airports," said Johnnie Larch, in the back of his mind, "or they'll …"

"You work for me now. You protect me. You transport me from place to place. You run errands. In an emergency, but only…"

""He’s hustling you,” said Mad Sweeney, rubbing his bristly ginger beard. “He’s a hustler.” “Damn straight I’m a hustl…"

""I don't like you, Mister Wednesday, or whatever your real name may be. We are not friends. I don't know how you got …"

"So what are you? A two-bit con artist?" Wednesday nodded. "Yes," he said. "I suppose I am. Among other things."

"There was a thin young woman behind the counter at the Motel America. She told Shadow he had already been checked in …"

"The best thing - in Shadow's opinion, perhaps the only good thing - about being in prison was a feeling of relief. Th…"