"From that Time on, the Song of Orpheus has always hovered at the Edge of my Perception; a Melody I can never fully recapture, try howsoever I will. And do not doubt that there are many in Authority to whom I would sing it, if 'twere within my Power."

"Will you kill all the poets, then, St. Just? Will you kill all the dreamers?"

"Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly."

"It is sometimes a mistake to climb, it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt."

"And if there's a moral there, I don't know what it is, save maybe that we should take our goodbyes whenever we can, and that's all."

"It's like, that people... well, that everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world—no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds... not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe."

"She shouldn't mess with the moon. That's dangerous."

"I was one of seventeen children. We were all named Wilkinson—I suppose it was roughest on the girls, but we all got used to it in the end. I blame the parents, really. ... It was just when they found a name they liked, they stuck with it."

"Where others ask timorously, Thessalian, your kind commanded, directed, ordered. It galled us. But the others are dust now, and less than dust. And one day you, in your turn, will join them. And then our compact will be over, and you will be ours, as they are."

"There are two ways into another's dreams. We can go through the dream king; or we can go by the moon's road. But the dream king has little time for you women, and even less for my kind; while the moon is ever ours. It's time to draw down the moon."

"I am not afraid. O Princess Barbara, protect me now as I have protected you in days long past. O Murphy watch over me. I will not be afraid."

"This is a bright place, filled with frightened people, and fast hard things that hurt and wound. No matter. I swore I would remain by her side forever, and until death divided us. I must walk until once more we are reunited."

"There will be no more wanton violence; no further suffering, inflicted without reason or explanation. We will hurt you. And we are not sorry. But we do not do it to punish you. We do it to redeem you. Because afterward, you'll be a better person... and because we love you. One day, you'll thank us for it." "But... you don't understand... that makes it worse. That makes it so much worse..."

"I don't want to talk to her, Matthew. I doubt that she wants to talk to me. But still... we will talk."

"The Gods of Nippon are very powerful. We are no longer worshiped as once we were, but we have adapted. Times have changed, and we have changed with them. We are expanding—assimilating other pantheons, later gods, new altars and icons. Marilyn Monroe is ours now, as are King Kong and Lady Liberty."

"I'm the amazing Cain. If you enjoyed our show, tell your friends. If you didn't, I trust you get throat cancer and die without ever again uttering another word. Goodnight."

"Even when it's empty, thought Charles Rowland, you're never alone in a school. It belong to all those dead people. All the other kids. The ones that sat at your desk, or slept in your bed, or ran down the corridors a hundred years ago. They never go away."

"I have the honor to be the personal slave of Lord Kilderkin, a manifestation of Order, here incarnated for us in the form of this cardboard box."

"I could never again be an angel... innocence, once lost, can never be regained."

"They talk of me going around and buying souls, like a fishwife come market day, never stopping to ask themselves why. I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul? No. They belong to themselves... they just hate to face up to it."

"Would the Lord of Hell destroy his realm? Would the Lord of Hell ever free the souls held in torment? Would the Lord of Hell expel the never-born? Would the Lord of Hell abandon the war with Heaven?" "The Lord of Hell will do what he damn well likes."

"I am Breschau of Livonia. I ripped out the tongues of those who spoke against me, and cut the unborn babes from the wombs of my enemies' women, that they would not become warriors to rise against me. I took my mother by force, and I strangled my sister when she would not consent to my advances. Soon my name was whispered in the night by mothers to terrify their babes into obedience. I am Breschau who bathed in the blood of children. I am Breschau who forced the true prophets of the Lord to dance upon plates of hot iron, under which fires were burning, and I laughed as they danced. I am Breschau and when my mistress was unfaithful to me, I cut the nose from her face and wore it about my neck. As for the woman, I had her sewn to her lover, and, skin to skin, I left them in the desert to be eaten by ravens, and I laughed as I heard them scream. I am Breschau, and this is my punishment."

"We do what we must, Lucien. Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all."

"'Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.' Eh, little brother-killer?" "Suh-certainly, Lord Lucifer. Whatever you say, Lord Lucifer." "We didn't say it. Milton said it. And he was blind."

"They believe themselves Lucifer's equals, Cain, all these pitiful little gnats. But there is only one that we have ever owned to be our superior. There is but one greater than us, and to Him... to Him we no longer speak."

"You must know, of course, of the Cainites? ... They also held that the way to salvation was to give way to lust and temptation in all things. And no greater percentage of them turned up here than of any other religion. Amusing, isn't it?"

"To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the seasons of mists; and may each and everyone of us always give the devil his due."

"You know, the idea of what someone like you considers a long time sends shivers down my spine."

"Times is, times was, time's past, Sir Robert." "Bold as brass, ma'am."

"I move from dreamer to dreamer, from dream to dream, hunting for what I need. Slipping and sliding and flickering through dreams; and the dreamers will wake and wonder why this dream seemed different, wonder how real their lives can truly be."

"Well, at least you've got the element of surprise on your side." "That would not be honorable, Matthew. I have already sent a messenger to the Lord of Hell, to let him know that I will be coming. One must do these things properly."

"I lost some time once. It's always in the last place you look for it."

"Dream casts a human shadow, when it occurs to him to do so."

"Delirium was once Delight. And although that was long ago now, even today her eyes are badly matched; one eye is a vivid emerald green, spattered with silver flecks that move; her other eye is vein blue. Who knows what Delirium sees, through her mismatched eyes?"

"Destiny is the oldest of the Endless; in the Beginning was the Word, and it was traced by hand on the first page of his book, before ever it was spoken aloud. ... Destiny smells of dust and the libraries of night. He leaves no footprints. He casts no shadow."

"Despair, Desire's sister and twin, is queen of her own bleak bourne. It is said that scattered through Despair's domain are a multitude of tiny windows, hanging in the void. Each window looks out onto a different scene, being, in our world, a mirror. Sometimes you will look into a mirror and feel the eyes of Despair upon you, feel her hook catch and snag on your heart."

"Desire smells almost subliminally of summer peaches, and casts two shadows: one black and sharp-edged, the other translucent and forever wavering, like heat haze. ... Desire smiles in brief flashes, like sunlight glinting from a knife-edge. And there is much else that is knife-like about Desire. Never a possession, always the possessor, with skin as pale as smoke, and eyes tawny and sharp as yellow wine: Desire is everything you have ever wanted. Whoever you are. Whatever you are. Everything."

"The garden of Destiny. You would know it if you saw it. After all, you will wander it until you die. Or beyond. For the paths are long, and even in death there is no ending to them."

"The paths fork and divide. With each step you take through Destiny's garden, you make a choice; and every choice determines future paths. However, at the end of a lifetime of walking you might look back, and see only one path stretching out behind you; or look ahead, and see only darkness."

"Who am I? Just a friend. Sometimes. Maybe. Sorry I couldn't help any. Be seeing you..."

"Rainie, mythologies take longer to die than people believe. They linger on in a kind of dream country that affects all of you."

"When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished. I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave."

"Anyway: I'm not blessed, or merciful. I'm just me. I've got a job to do, and I do it. Listen: even as we're talking, I'm there for old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone. I'm in cars and boats and planes, in hospitals and forests and abattoirs. For some folks death is a release, and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, I'm there for all of them."

"And you've come for me? Blessed, merciful death. You've come to make it all stop?" "No. I haven't come for you, Rainie. There was a woman upstairs, changing the light bulb in her kid's room. The stepladder slipped... like I said, I was passing and I heard you crying, and, well, the door was open..."

"They say that cigarettes will kill you, eventually. Fine. That's just fine. I only wish they'd do it faster. ... I like smoking cigarettes. It's something normal people do. I smoke a cigarette, and pretend I'm normal. And I wish I was dead."