Perfection is death,’ Anastasia said. ‘The world is imperfect, but if it weren’t, who would love it?

You’re still the same Ramsey I danced with,” he said softly.

From the dark forest that bordered the soft ploughed fields, came a low cry that did not belong to any animal. It was accompanied by the sound of branches bending and snapping, and the splintering...

The irony was that my real enemy had been there all along right in front of me. Smiling crookedly and convincing me we were friends. Trying to seduce me for the thrill of the chase....

Dreams are not without meaning wherever thay may come from-from fantasy, from the elements, or from other inspiration.

She had learned to pay attention to the variations in Rokan’s smiles. There was the sideways half-smile when he found something amusing; the slow, contented smile that appeared only rarely these days; and the wide,...

You’re going to be missing a few teeth if you don’t explain yourself,” I growled.

Good to see you too, Otto.” -Sydney Rose

To connect is to dissolve the imaginary pyramids of artificial privilege.

I began composing the next poem, the one that was to be written next. Not the last poem of those I had read, but the poem written in the head of someone who may never...

You read, move your lips, figure out the words, and it’s like you’re in two places at the same time: you’re sitting or lying with your legs curled up, your hand groping in the bowl,...

The thought of that kid pulling a knife on the other, for something as trivial as a stereo, was unconscionable to a simple, peace-loving man like Nathan, who grew up in a time when people...

Never more than once.

You won’t find the tales I bear in any books . . . My tales are from the Moon Realm.” —Ebb Autumn

You retain the Ki. Whether or not you become a warrior is for you to discover.

He was king, if he didn’t have enemies he wasn’t doing it right.

When a mortal man breaks a people, it is always blamed on the gods.

On a scale ranging from very little to too much, Merkin could just about categorize the amount of personal data stored in Master Loo’s computer as a shitload.

I know perfectly well he’s a god, too. But what I think is he’ll be much godlier after he’s dead.

Run first,’ Shane said. ‘Mourn later.’It was the perfect motto for Morganville.

As for peace, it was never free and laws were made to be broken. Peacemaker or lawbreaker, someone, somewhere always paid the price no matter what side of the words they were on.

This mindless tolerance, which places observable scientific facts, subject to proof, on the same level as unprovable supernatural fantasy, has played a major role in the resurgence of both anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism.

In the City Market is the Meet Café. Followers of obsolete, unthinkable trades doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, pushers of souped-up harmine, junk reduced to pure habit offering precarious vegetable serenity,...

Nothing haunts the world more than the words of the dead.

The fantastic is always a break in the acknowledged order, an irruption of the inadmissible within the changeless everyday legality

We rode on the winds of the rising storm,We ran to the sounds of the thunder.We danced among the lightning bolts,and tore the world asunder.

Far more beguiling than the idea that evil can be destroyed by throwing a piece of expensive jewelry into a volcano is the possibility that evil can be defused by talking. The fantasy of justice...

The cry that ‘fantasy is escapist’ compared to the novel is only an echo of the older cry that novels are ‘escapist’ compared with biography, and to both cries one should make the same answer:...

How may a mortal, face and defeat the Kraken

When hunting a Maltese Falcon, catch it, but don’t scratch it!

People with imagination

Stars are the souls of old sailors. They plot the skies and guide the wayward home.

Reunion with the mother is a siren call haunting our imagination. Once there was bliss, and now there is struggle. Dim memories of life before the traumatic separation of birth may be the source of...

Mitsuko told me that you make your jewellery yourself. You’re very talented, they’re really lovely pieces, but I wouldn’t want to take them away from you. It’s you that makes these jewels really beautiful!

We may say that the characters in fairytales are ‘good to think with’…[and that] the job of the fairytale is to show that Why? questions cannot be answered except in one way: by telling the...

So why isn’t the world overrun with evil spirits?”Moira stared at her, a half-smile on her face. “Who says it isn’t?

Are you imperfect, romantically irrational, ridiculously fearless, and utterly illogical? You’re my ideal reader, friend, partner. I’m your fan.

I felt that I was breaking him apart as much as I was breaking myself apart. I imagined that pain in his mercury eyes and the silent tears whispered their way down my cheeks. Silent...

Those secrets residing in their hearts and minds held magnificent Energy. Humans were too inept to see it as anything but evil.

Ranerio wrapped his hand around mine, guiding my fingers like Lucius had done when he’d shown me the latch behind the dressing-room door mirror. But while the warrior I loved had been offering me an...

The unnamed man’s nose flared in insult as he thought to himself while the pig named Corbin prattled on. He disgusts me with his gluttonous sweat and fearful stink. He is like a swine, plumped...

Joys circular fulfillment was so persistent, when I was weak it gave me strength.

We never care for anyone for their own sake. We train them for the system. No one matters for their own sake. No one acts for their own sake. The system will always be bigger...

It’s people’s worst fantasy to see their partner kissing someone else, even though it’s a job and it’s not real.

Santa was dead, to begin with. There was no doubt whatsoever about that. The after-action report was signed by the field commander, the director of operations, the secretary of the Office of Sidhe Affairs, and...

But are they heroes or mere dreamers?

Funny. You like it when I scream? Yet you cover my mouth!” I laughed then winced.

The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.

Illusions may flatter us, confuse us, or betray us, Drakkonwehr. Or they may be images we cling to when the truth is too difficult to face.

Ms. Wrack’s mother, Mrs. Wrack, had been a mermaid: a proper one who lived on a rock and combed her hair and sang. But sailors had never been lured to their doom by her, partly...