"Matt Smith?" I said. "Really? You are not the Doctor, Bran. At your age, it is important to keep a lookout for excessive hubris."

"People will do amazing things to ensure their survival."

"The only certainty life contains is death."

"All life is rife with possibilities. Seeds have possibilities, but all their tomorrows are caught by the patterning of their life cycle. Animals have possibilities that are greater than that of a fir tree or a blade of grass. Still, though, for most animals, the pattern of instinct, the patterns of their lives, are very strong. Humanity has a far greater range of possibilities, especially the very young. Who will children grow up to be? Who will they marry, what will they believe, what will they create? Creation is a very powerful seed of possibility."

"Women are the bloodthirsty sex," said Ric sadly. "We get the reputation, but it is only because the women stand behind us, and say, 'Kill it. Squish it."

"Over a lifetime of dealing with difficult women, I have learned it is often better to give into their demands immediately."

"I can't protect you from knowledge."

"He sighed. "I don't think an apology will do, Mercy. Because an apology implies that you wouldn't do it again. And, under the circumstances, you wouldn't do anything differently, would you?"No."

"Love is not necessary for sex."

"Why is it that all cars are women?" he asked. "Because they're fussy and demanding," answered Zee. "Because if they were men, they'd sit around and complain instead of getting the job done," I told him."

"It's easier to dismiss ghosts in the daylight."

"Death isn't a tragedy to God, only to those left behind."

"Any idiot can put up a website."

"Survivors can't always choose their methods."

"Reincarnation?He shrugged. "I've never seen any evidence that it's real. But I've never seen anything that disproves it either. I believe the afterlife is better than what we have here-and it would take something extraordinary to make someone willing to come back."

"Pack is for comfort when you hurt, I thought, putting my head back down. And for the first time in a long time, maybe the first time ever, I appreciated being a part of one."

"What would a racist call werewolves? Wargs? She kind of liked that one, but suspected that racist bastards didn't read Tolkien."

"Food was good, company better, and if I had been a cat, I'd have preferred."

"My father always said that too many words cheapened the value of a man's speech."

"Into the breach, then. Against mobs of middle-aged moms and frightening harridans we shall prevail.She nodded sharply, raising an invisible sword. "And damned be he-she-who cries, 'Hold, enough!'"Misquote Shakespeare in front of Samuel, I dare you, I told her, and she laughed."

"Evil must always be fought."

"Don't lick the guests, darling. Bad manners."

"MS. THOMPSON, it said in heavy block letters, PLEASE KEEP YOUR FELINE OFF MY PROPERTY. IF I SEE IT AGAIN, I WILL EAT IT."

"When he grew up, he wanted to be like Charles."

"Love thy enemies, it says in the scriptures. My foster mother always added, "At the very least, you will be polite to them."

"I was too busy fighting the river to worry about adjusting my beliefs in accordance to reality."

"When life doesn't meet your expectations, it was important to take it with grace."

"This world has need of song and sword."

"All right," Mom said. She gave Samuel a stern look,"Now I don't know what's going on between you and my daughter and Adam Hauptman-""Neither do we," I mutteredSamuel grinned "We have it pretty well worked out as far as the sex goes. Adam gets it-someday-and I don't. But the rest is still up for negotiation."

"Sometimes I think I live more closely to the past than the present."

"He stepped back with exaggerated courtesy. But when I walked past him, he swatted my rump. Hard enough to sting."You need to be more careful, he growled. "Keep interfering in my business and you might get hurt.I said sweetly as I continued to Jesse's room, "The last man who swatted me like that is rotting in his grave."I have no doubt about it. His voice was more satisfied then contrite."

"He didn't say anything more, just waited for me to tell him what I'd been thinking. It was pure speculation, and I was opening myself up to ridicule by saying anything at all. I sat on the stool and realized that I had my loyalties, too."

"Dragons and legends...It would have been difficult for any man not to want to fight beside a dragon."

"I like that people can just look at you and know that you are taken, that you are mine. He closed his eyes and laughed. "And yes, I know that sentiment is at the top of the Women's Liberation Movement's list of things not to say to a modern woman."

"Wolf," she said. "Married is wonderful, married is lovely. But I loved you before that, and you were mine before that. Only you for me-only me for you. That's how it was before our marriage." The smile fell away and left her pale and determined. "That's how it was when I found you in that pit trap all those years ago-I knew as soon as I first saw your eyes. But then, I've known all my life what love is. It took you, who had nothing to compare it to, rather longer to figure out, to understand what is between us. But even when you did not understand or recognize it-it was always love."

"I suppose we must work on being gracious and grateful until we can do for ourselves. Someday the wheel of fate will put us in a position to be of use to them, and we will remember how much easier it is to give help than it is to accept it."

"Are you going to tell me what that was about? Adam asked as we went back upstairs."Sometime, I told him. "When we're telling ghost stories around a campfire, and I want to scare you."

"Death is not such a bad thing. What would be a bad thing would be living without challenges. Without knowing defeat, we cannot know what victory is. There is no life without death."

"I don't say goodbye very easily, Anna. Not gracefully or prettily.Goodbye tears your heart out and leaves it a feast for carrion birds who happen by."

"A man's immortality can be found in his children."

"New rules. If you are smart enough to live, you won't hit Charles's mate in front of his father."

"My mother once told me that you had to trust that the first thing out of a person's mouth was the truth. After they have a chance to think about it, they'll change what they say to be more socially acceptable, something they think you'll be happier with, something they think will get the results they want."

"Werewolf games," Mercy said solemnly, "play for keeps, or go home." She was so cute sometimes it made Adam's heart hurt."

"She doesn't need the pack. She doesn't need me.I shot to my feet. "That's not true, I said hotly.He tilted his head a little, his eyes meeting mine. His eyes softened. "I misspoke, he said in a steady voice. "She doesn't need me to make sure she has enough food or a place to live-that is my privilege, but she doesn't need me to do that. She doesn't need me to keep her safe or to make her a whole person. She doesn't need me to do anything except love her. Which I do."

"The hardest memory of slavery that Rialla had to bear was not the lack of freedom, it was the lack of desiring freedom."

"A king who trusts no man is weak."

"It is the way of mortals. They fling themselves at life and emerge broken."

"The main thing to remember is that making love is at onces the silliest and the most sacred act humans can perform."

"Adam didn't approve of Wal-Mart."

"You'd tell the world what your best friend wore to sleep if you thought it made a good enough story."