Darren Shan

“...one of the wolf-like beasts wraps it's arms around me and howls into my ear, obscuring all other sounds. I lash at the creature, trying to wriggle free, gathering my energy to fight back. before I can, the beasts laughs and says, "Surely you recognise me.”

“We laugh. Bec stares at us uncertainly, then joins in. She sounds a bit like Bill-E when she laughs, and for a few happy moments it's as if me, my brother and uncle are together again, relaxing in Dervish's study, sharing a joke, not a care in the world.”

“Look at me!" I roar. "Do you think you'll be the first I've killed today? I wasn't a murderer, but you changed me. I'm a monster now. And I'm hungry." "Meera!" Anotoine whines. "Prae! Please, I beg you. You're civilised people. Help me!" "We can't," Prae says coldly. "Even if we wanted to - and personally I have no problem with him gutting you - we couldn't. He's not ours to control. He's one of your specimens. You helped create him - now you have to deal with him”

“You didn't want to die. Most mortals don't, even if they find themselves in as desolate and soul-destroying a spot as you. Almost all of those who take their own lives wish at the last moment that they hadn't. They see at the end how much they've given up, how precious life is, even when it's treated them like dirt and crushed their dreams. Many think they've passed beyond hope, but they never really have, not until they pass beyond life itself. Alas, that knowledge comes too late for most would-be-suicides and they die with regret. Very few are offered the chance that you have been handed.”

“But in life we don't usually get to choose the time of our defining moments. We just have to stand and face them when they come, no matter what sort of a state we're in.”

“Better to die for my people in my own land than rule in another and suffer a lifetime of cowardly guilt.”

“So easy to take it for granted, but this is something no normal human was made to see. The world of magic has blessed me with wonders and it's only right to stop every now and then to appreciate it.”

“I always knew there was power in the earth, but it must be much stronger than I imagined to resist such a relentless foe, day after day, night after night, year after year.”

“As a warrior, she won't have allowed herself to mourn. But women can't make themselves as detached as men. Our hearts are bigger. We feel loss in a way men don't. Orna has the body and mind of a warrior but her heart is like mine, and I know inside she's weeping.”

“But I don't think Art's an Einstein - he likes tugging ears, biting people and burping too much to be a genius.”

“I'd like to do something to help the worst afflicted, but I can't. It's not possible to save everybody. Even heroes have their all-too-human limits.”

“I'm starting to understand that fear is like cancer - you can beat it back, but if it returns, it can be worse than ever.”

“But stories don't end. They continue as long as you're alive. You just have to get on with things. Turn the page, start a new chapter, find out what's in store for you next, and keep your fingers crossed that it's not too awful. Even if you know in your heart and soul that it most probably will be.”

“One of the things is that in times of severe disorder, you can't worry about the dead, only the living.”

“But when Tel Hasani wasn't looking, he cast a worried eye over the snake, just incase there were any family resemblances.”

“It's a bit like the feeling I get when I'm standing on a cliff or high building, looking down at a suicidal drop. I start thinking about what would happen if I stepped off, the rush of the fall, the shattering collision, the quiet emptiness of death. Part of me wants to experience the thrill of complete surrender...”

“Because we live in a world under siege,” I say. “Life sucks for mages and magicians- you taught me that. Bad things happen to those of us who get involved, but if we didn't fight, we'd be in an even worse state. None of it it’s your fault, any more than it’s the fault of the moon or the stars.”Dervish nods slowly, then arches an eyebrow “The moon or the stars?”“I always get poetic when I'm dealing with self-pitying simpletons.”

“You can't hang around waiting for somebody else to pull your strings. Destiny's what you make of it. You have to face whatever life throws at you. And if it throws more than you'd like, more than you think you can handle? Well then you just have to find the heroism within yourself and play out the hand you've been dealt. The universe never sets a challenge that can't be met. You just need to believe in yourself in order to find the strength to face it.”

“Wars raged everywhere as men found new, inventive ways to kill even more of their race. It was like a contest, the many tribes of mankind competing to see who could commit the worst atrocities.”

“Better not to start down a wrong path at all than head down it in the hope of making a detour when something better came along.”

“I don't think anyone ever remembers what they were really like as kids. Adults think they do, but they don't. Photos and videos don't capture the real you, or bring back to life the person you used to be. You have to return to the past to do that.”

“I gulped, then stepped over the threshold into the house where I'd lived as a boy. After eighteen long years of wandering, I had finally come home.”

“But the universe isn't fair. Things don't work out neatly, pain, hardship and challenges divided equally among those best equipped to deal with them. Sometimes individuals have to be Atlases and carry the weight of the world alone. It shouldn't happen that way, but it does.”

“If he turned his back on humanity now, it would be forever.”

“I don't like it, but my hands are tied. I just want you to know this: if I ever get the chance to betray you, I will. If the opportunity arises to pay you back, I'll take it. You'll never be able to trust me.”

“You thought I was a werewolf?" Dervish asks."Yes" I answer hollowly."You ass.”

“For a long time that's all I could do, howl and scream and cry like the wild animal of the night that I'd become.”

“Underneath me, Sam Grest - who'd been my friend and saved my life - lay perfectly still and slipped further and further into the final sleep of an unfair and horrible death.”

“If I'd known how wrong I was - if I'd had any idea of the awful night that lay ahead - I'd have run after him and never returned to that disgusting circus of blood, that revolting circus of death.”

“...The pain didn't bother me. In fact, I welcome it: It meant I was alive. ”

“Jangan biarkan kebencian menguasai hidupmu. Kematianku tidak perlu dibalaskan. Hiduplah sebagai vampir yang bebas, bukan sebagai makhluk putus asa gila dan terobsesi untuk membalas dendam.”

“Kebanyakan orang merasa takut suatu waktu dalam hidupnya. Itu tidak berarti mereka pengecut. Pengecut adalah mereka yang tidak melakukan apapun ketika rasa takut mengancam menghancurkan mereka.”

“Monster tidak terlahir keji begitu saja. Mereka tumbuh, berkembang, menjadi monster.”

“Real life's nasty. It's cruel. It doesn't care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins.”

“Throw up whatever's making you sick, Darren," he said, "then get your behind back in here.”

“Maybe you're going insane.""Maybe," agreed Kernel."I was joking.""I wasn't.”

“Of course I have nightmares-Who doesn't?”

“No, thats not how it happened... Mr crepsley dropped. He was impaled on the stakes. He died. And it was awful... His cries as he writhed there, bleeding and dying, burning and screaming, will stay with me till I die. Maybe I'll even carry them with me after I go.”

“My eyes! I'm blind!”

“Quick! Head for the ground floor! We have to get out! We will die if we stay! The vampires are here!""Haven't you got a hug for me, Larten, old buddy?”

“Meddling, smug, stupid little...""She likes me! They always play hard to get when they like me!""No. You do not understand. I could not have done it because I can not read or write.”

“... please Lady... Do not speak of it. I was young and foolish.""You most certainly were.""You are cruel, Evanna.”

“No.You know this is wrong and you want to feel better about it.You don't want to admit your as ruthless and monstrous as the demons you claim to hate.”

“To be a druid is to embrace death, dance with it a while, and finally fall prey to it. That is why we'll never rule this world. We have the power to bend all men to our whim, but are forever pushing ourselves further,trying to fly higher...and falling”

“Man wasn't made to share the universe with gods. Their ways are not meant for the humble likes of us. But we've decoded some of their secrets regardless. Like worms, we've grabbed on to the talons of eagles and learnt some small truths and means of flight. But we can never really fly. We try, and succeed to a certain extent, but the fall is always—will always be—there. To be a druid is to embrace death, dance with it a while and finally fall prey to it. That is why we'll never rule this world. We have the power to bend all men to our whim, but are forever pushing ourselves further, trying to fly higher… and falling.”

“There's something different about you," he says."I've started styling my hair differently," I laugh."Oh. I thought it was that you were three feet taller, a hell of a lot broader, look like a werewolf, and are naked expect for that bit of cloth around your waist. But you're right - it's the hair.”

“Watching the hole in the ever-fading light. It’s the size of a baby now, closing all the time. Narrower and narrower, until there’s barely room to fit an arm through. I’m thinking about quenching the light before the hole shuts—this is just torture—when a face suddenly appears. It’s Bran. The spell has passed and he’s come back. He wants to get through, to be with me. But the hole’s too small. He punches it, pulls at it, slips his fingers into the gap and strains with all his might—but it’s no good. The rock continues to grind together. The hole gets smaller, the width of a finger now.At the last moment, Bran presses his mouth up to the hole and roars with raw pain and loss, at the top of his voice, “Bec!” It’s the only time he’s ever uttered my name. Anyone’s name. His anguished cry stabs at my heart and tears spring to my eyes. I open my mouth to shout his own name back, to offer whatever small shred of comfort I can… but then the rock closes all the way and a fierce rumbling drowns out the echoes of Bran’s cry.I stare at the solid rock. My mouth closes. The light fades. Darkness.”

“Bran,” I sob. “You have to go.” He just smiles. “Bran! You must!” Again the smile. He won't leave. He'll be my faithful friend forever. He'd rather die by my side than skip free without me. I return the smile. “Very well,” I sigh and reach out a hand. Bran takes it, expecting only my touch. But what he gets on top of that is the last of my magic. A swift, improvised spell. I reach into his mind and send an image into his thoughts, of the hole, him dashing out of it, racing through the cave and not coming back. And then, with all the magical force I can muster, I yell at him— “Run fast!”

“What are you doing?""Looking for my fangs.""We don't grow fangs you idiot!”

“I know who the demon thief is - it's me!”