Caring about someone isn’t complicated. It isn’t easy. But it isn’t complicated, either. Kinda like lifting the engine block out of a car.

Nobody can be bad at everything. There’s no such thing as a perfect screwup.

I’ve had a tense couple of days. And I’ve got to tell you, burning someone’s face off sounds like a great way to relax.

But the only way never to do the wrong thing is never to do anything.

I know how you feel,” I said. “You run into something you totally don’t get, and it’s scary as hell. But once you learn something about it, it gets easier to handle. Knowledge counters fear....

So I added in all the pains I’d learned. Cooking blunders I’d had to eat anyways. Equipment and property constantly breaking down, needing repairs and attention. Tax insanity, and rushing around trying to hack a...

Magic comes from what is inside you. It is a part of you. You can’t weave together a spell that you don’t beleive in.

You couldn’t spot a pop culture reference if it skittered up and implanted an embryo down your esophagus.

if you’re going to be in an orgy, the middle is the best spot, isn’t it.

It took a freaking genius to put this together, Michael.”I hefted my staff.”Fortunately,” I said, and took a two-handed swing at the nearest stand of slender, delicate crystal. It shattered with gratifying ease, and the...

She might be the Archive, but she’s still a kid, Kincaid.”He frowned and looked at me. “So?””So? Kids like cute.”He blinked at me. “Cute?””Come on.”I led him downstairs.On the lower level of the Oceanarium there’s...

Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don’t-even-blink wench.

Life is too short, Harry. And there’s nowhere near enough joy in it. If you find it, grab it. Before it’s gone.

Maybe you know the monsters, Martin,” Murphy said quietly. “But I know the guy who stops them. And if they don’t return the girl, we’ll make them regret it.” She nodded at me and said,...

You don’t go walking into the proverbial lion’s den lightly. You start with a good breakfast.

Billy squinted at me. “Why are you letting them go?””Because they’re real.””How do you know?””The one I was holding crapped on my hand.

How do i do this?

Isana laughed. “And you, lady? Are you a woman of conscience or of ambition?”The lady smiled. “That’s a question rarely asked here at court.””And why is that?””Because a woman of conscience would tell you that...

After a few minutes, Molly came partway up the short ladder to the bridge and stopped. “Do I need to ask permission to come up there or something?””Why would you?” I asked.She considered. “It’s what...

I still can’t believe,” Michael said, sotto voce, “that you came to the Vampires’ Masquerade Ball dressed as a vampire.

See? This is why I’m not religious. I couldn’t possibly keep my mouth shut long enough to get along with everyone else.

I wouldn’t burden any decent system of faith by participating in it… I’m not agnostic. Just nonpartisan. Theological Switzerland, that’s me.

Doesn’t matter how pretty you are. What’s important is how pretty you feel. No one feels pretty when they hear “no” often enough.

I hate what you represent.”… “Power without conviction.” Isana replied, her tone lifeless, matter of fact. “Ambition without conscience. Decent folk suffer at the hands of those like you.

You have a visitor, my lord.” I frowned, “What?” “That is why I came in here. You have a visitor waiting for you.” I stood up, exasperated. “Why didn’t you say so?” Lacuna looked confused....

There’s always, always a choice. My options might really, truly suck, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a choice.

Mister Dresden,” he said. “And Miss Rodriguez, I believe. I didn’t realize you were an art collector.” “I am the foremost collector of velvet Elvii in the city of Chicago,” I said at once. “Elvii?”...

There are a lot of things I can’t control. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few days.I don’t want what I am going to face, what kind of choices I am...

I’d made the vampire cry. Great. I felt like a real superhero. Harry Dresden, breaker of monsters’ hearts.

Life would be unbearably dull if we had answers to all our questions.

I am blind and limited. I would be a fool think myself wise. And so, not knowing what the universe means, I can only try to be responsible with the knowledge, the strength, and the...

The human mind isn’t a terribly logical or consistent place. Most people, given the choice to face a hideous or terrifying truth or to conveniently avoid it, choose the convenience and peace of normality. That...

Like I said, magic comes from life, and especially from emotions. They’re a source of the same intangible energy that everyone can feel when an autumn moon rises and fills you with a sudden sense...

The wacky thing about those bad guys is that you can’t count on them to be obvious. They forget to wax their mustaches and goatees, leave their horns at home, send their black hats to...

You don’t have to make fun of it.””Actually I do,” I said. “I make fun of almost everything.

If you turn into a hideous monster and I am sent to slay you, I will remember this and make it as painless as I can, out of respect for you.

Please, help me. Young werewolves in love. I turned to walk into the house, moving carefully.I had never much believed in God. Well, that’s not quite true. I believed that there was a God, or...

Hell’s bells, irony blows.

Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don’t feel it.

I choose my battles, Dresden. Not you.” She looked up at me calmly. “Let me put this in terms that will get through your skull: My friend is going to save a child from monsters....

I put on the boots and kicked some monster ass.

Ease off the martyr throttle.

Honest. It’s almost always best to go with honest. It means you never have to worry about getting your story straight.

Think of every fairy-tale villainess you’ve ever heard of. Think of the wicked witches, the evil queens, the mad enchantresses. Think of the alluring sirens, the hungry ogresses, the savage she-beasts. Think of them and...

Peabody may not have seen the man turn into a grizzly, but he was bright enough to know that Injun Joe was getting set to adjust another relative ass-to-ears ratio.

Regardless of what I think about Islam or Wicca or any other religion, the fact is that it’s a group of people. Every faith has its ceremonies. And since it’s made up of people, every...

I have nightmares about hell, where all I do is add up numbers and try to have conversations with people like you.

But I don’t understand God. I don’t understand how he could see the way people treat one another, and not chalk up the whole human race as a bad idea.

Time after time, history demonstrates that when people don’t want to believe something, they have enormous skills of ignoring it altogether.

…the cab of the truck heated up nicely, its windows fogging. I felt like a Dickens character. I thought about explaining that to Mouse, just to occupy my thoughts, but he was suffering enough without...