We have now left Reason and Sanity Junction. Next stop, Looneyville.

Fear has a lot of flavors and textures. There’s a sharp, silver fear that runs like lightning through your arms and legs, galvanizes you into action, power, motion. There’s heavy, leaden fear that comes in...

Vanity, thy name is vampire.

I let out a battle cry. Sure, a lot of people might have mistaken it for a sudden yelp of unmanly fear, but trust me. It was a battle cry.

I don’t want to live in a world where the strong rule and the weak cower. I’d rather make a place where things are a little quieter. Where trolls stay the hell under their bridges...

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

Oh,” the girl said, shaking her head. “Don’t be so simple. People adore monsters. They fill their songs and stories with them. They define themselves in relation to them. You know what a monster is,...

Da. This is going very well already.”Thomas barked out a laugh. “There are seven of us against the Red King and his thirteen most powerful nobles, and it’s going well?”Mouse sneezed.”Eight,” Thomas corrected himself. He...

There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human...

A man’s magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man’s character than the way in which he employs his...

In the name of the Pizza Lord. Charge!

Bite me, faerie fruitcake.

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

So we get a plan,” I said. “Any suggestions?””Blow up the building,” Kincaid said without looking up. “That works good for vampires. Then soak what’s left in gasoline. Set it on fire. Then blow it...

Hell’s holy stars and freaking stones shit bells.

I’m dealing with a lot of scary things. I think you have to react to them. And you either laugh at them or you go insane.

There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more . . . secure.

I’d gone with my usual option. I was running through long tunnels filled with demons and monsters and nightmares, because it was easier than going to the gym.

Heroism doesn’t pay very well. I try to be cold-blooded and money-oriented, but I keep screwing it up.

Loneliness is a hard thing to handle. I feel it, sometimes. When I do, I want it to end. Sometimes, when you’re near someone, when you touch them on some level that is deeper than...

Seedy wasn’t a fair description for the place, because seeds imply eventual regrowth and renewal.

You backbiting, poisonous, treacherous, deceitful, wicked, clever girl. If this works I’ll buy you a pony.

Sure, we’d faced some things as children that a lot of kids don’t. Sure, Justin had qualified for his Junior de Sade Badge in his teaching methods for dealing with pain. We still hadn’t learned,...

Epic sex?” I sputtered. “By what standards, precisely, is sex judged to be epic?””And tons and tons of mortal simps like you used as pawns.” Bob sighed happily, ignoring my question. “There are no words....

I sidestepped the vampire’s rush, and drove my half of the former blasting rod down at its back, Buffy-like.Maybe it works better on television.

You rush a miracle worker, you get lousy miracles!

Life can be confusing. Good God, and how. Sometimes it seems like the older I get, the more confused I become. That seems ass-backwards. I thought I was supposed to be getting wiser. Instead, I...

I wish I worried about my uncle’s opinions, and had problems to work out with my mom. Hell, I’d settle for knowing what her voice sounded like.” I put a hand on her shoulder. “Trite...

Laugh whenever you can. Keeps you from killing yourself when things are bad. That and vodka.

A succubus on the set. Strike that, the health-conscious kid sister made it two… succubuses. Succubusees? Succubi? Stupid Latin correspondence course.

Karrin.”She looked up at me. She looked very young somehow.”Remember what I said yesterday,” I said. “You’re hurt. But you’ll get through it. You’ll be okay.”She closed her eyes tightly. “I’m scared. So scared I’m...

Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against...

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

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

Being a wizard gives you more power than most, but it doesn’t change your heart. We’re all human. We’re all of us equally naked before the jaws of pain.

It’s one of the things that makes us different than they are, Harry. The blood on their hands does not make it right to bloody my own. My choices are measured against my own soul....

Murphy hung up and I said, to the still-open line, “Hey, if you’ve got someone watching my place, could you call the cops if anyone tries to steal my Star Wars poster? It’s an original.”Then...

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

Every soul is special. They’re all beautiful. They’re all far more significant than anyone on this rock realizes. I think when people are at their best, they’re acting in accordance with their soul. The ones...

Harry Dresden. Saving the world, one act of random destruction at a time.

I realized then what had happened.She had turned us–all of us, except for Mouse–into great, gaunt, long-legged hounds.Wonderful!” Lea said, pirouetting upon one toe, laughing. “Come, children!” And she leapt off into the jungle, nimble...

A bolt of warmth, fierce with joy and pride and gratitude, flashed through me like sudden lightning. I don’t care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who...

Most of the bad guys in the real world don’t know that they are bad guys. You don’t get a flashing warning sign that you’re about to damn yourself. It sneaks up on you when...

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...

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

Paranoia is a survival trait when you run in my circles. It gives you something to do in your spare time, coming up with solutions to ridiculous problems that aren’t ever going to happen. Except...

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

The man once wrote: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Tolkien had that one mostly right.I stepped forward, let the door bang closed, and snarled,...

If you go to your death rather than do everything you might to prevent what is happening, you are merely committing suicide and trying to make yourself feel better about it. That is the act...

But… all I said was that I was scared.” After what you got to experience? That’s smart, kid,” I said. “I’m scared, too. Every time something like this happens, it scares me. But being strong...