“Those words, that voice, had more power over me than any phantom ever could.”

“Did you pick that out?" I asked Dimitri. Honestly, I would have expected him to bend a piece of steel with his bare hands and present her with that.”

“Through the metal grating on my carrier door, Adrian's face suddenly appeared, peering in at me. "What new, pussycat?”

“I shook my head, smiling in spite of myself, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Adrian. My husband. If anyone had told me a year ago that I'd be married, I would've said they were joking. If they'd ...”

“We don't really have a song or anything." I pondered that for a second. "I guess we've failed as a couple in that regard."She scoffed. "If that's our biggest failing, then I think we're doing okay.”

“That creature's staying?' It figured. Her daughter-in-law transforming into an animal? No problem. Having to take care of a cat? Crisis. (Sydney Sage-Ivashkov)”

“Now,young lady,I suppose you're here for a work assignment."Work?" Tally said.They both looked down at her puzzled expression, and Shay burst into laughter.”

“The very idea of making shoes by hand boggled her mind.”

“Language is the alchemy of transforming a thought into a word, and the word into a new reality.”

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

“I've always said that idleness dulls the spirit. We have to keep the brain busy, or at least the hands if we don't have a brain.”

“If your workplace was somehow transplanted into the jungle and everyone was forced to survive at a very primitive level, it's safe to say that eventually your boss would rape you.”

“Innocent? Tell me human, who among you is innocent? Who among you has not destroyed without need or hurt without pity? Should a lion ponder his role in thinning the herds? Does he question whether ...”

“As we pass the mirror in the bedroom, my attention is drawn to the lovely couple in the reflection. There is a man, tall with broad shoulders. His red hair cut short. He has nothing but a towel on....”

“Good evening and good night.”