"“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.”"

"You’re not a nun, are you? You haven’t taken one of those absurd vows that cut you off from what otherwise might be a full and healthy human existence?"

"“The thing is,” Coyote says, “nothing’s as easy as we’d like it to be.” “Don’t I know it,” I mutter, but he’s not even listening to me. “And the real trouble comes from not knowing what we really want in the first place.”"

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

"“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.”"

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

"“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?”"

"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."

"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."

"Remember the quiet wonders. The world has more need of them than it has for warriors. And this I will tell you as well: One cannot seek to uphold honor in a being that has none."

"“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.”"

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

"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."

"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."

"“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."

"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."

"“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.”"

"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 beauty that needed preserving, whether it lay in a forest, a field, or a city street. Whether it was the workings of a plant, from seed to new growth to mulch, or the workings of some complex machine. There was room for everything in the world, so long as men remembered the beauty."

"The mystery didn’t concern himself overly much with the workings of the world. He simply went where he went, did what he did, amoral as a wind that is neither good nor evil, but simply is."

"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?"

"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.”"

"It’s important to know what a person was. But it’s more important to know what they are now."

"The Lost Music was his way of talking about the way he believed that old wives' tales and dance tunes and folktales were just the tangled echoes of something that's not quite of this world … something we all knew once, but have forgotten since."

"A body of work may be reviled — mostly by those who have no knowledge of its workings — and yet still carry elements of what can only be considered eternal truths."

"It's not the work or the personality of the founder of a religion that's important, but what its followers do with what they learn..."

"I love this world … That is what rules my life. When I die, I want to have done all in my power to leave it in a better state than it was in when I found it. At the same time I know that this can never be. The world has grown so complex that one voice can do little to alter it any longer. That doesn't stop me from doing what I can but it makes the task hard. The successes are so small, the failures so large and many. It's like trying to stem a storm with one's bare hands."

"It may sound trite, but using the weapons of the enemy, no matter how good one's intentions, makes one the enemy."

"Legend and myth are what we use to describe what we don't comprehend. They are out attempts to make the impossible, possible — at least insofar as our spirits interact with the spirit of the world, or if that is too animistic for you, then let's use Jung's terminology and call it our racial subconscious. No matter the semantics, they are of a kind and it is legend and myth that binds us all together. … Through them, through their retellings, and through those version that are called religion while they are current, we are taught Truth and we attempt to understand Mystery."

"Like legend and myth, magic fades when it is unused — hence all the old tales of elfin Kingdoms moving further and further away from our world, or that magical beings require our faith, our belief in their existence, to survive. … That is a lie. All they require is our recognition."

"Why did men worship in churches, locking themselves away in the dark, when the world lay beyond its doors in all its real glory?"

"They stood and listened, arms around each other for comfort, as the sound washed over them. It reverberated in the marrow of their bones, sung high and sweet, heartbreakingly mournful, quick as a jig, slow as the saddest air. Their hearts swelled with its beauty, its mystery. With all it revealed, and all that it hid."

"While you live … you have a duty to life. … The fey wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them. … Otherwise they fade away."

"Witchery is merely a word for what we are all capable of — heightened nightsight, an empathy shared with the beasts, a utilization of the more obscure abilities of our minds. Nothing that science can't explain away. Wizardry is spells and enchantments. Fairy tales."

"He had seen trances before — wise men far in the east, who could feign death; a herbwife as she bent over her patient, searching for invisible hurts. But this was different. He could sense something here, within the circle cast by the light of the fire. A presence. Presences..."

"One expected growth, change; without it, the world was less, the well of inspiration dried up, the muses fled."