Jim Butcher

“I am just another blind man. I do not get the whole picture of what transpires in all places. I am blind and limited. I would be a fool to 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 time given to me.”

“Magic is a kind of energy. It is given shape by human thoughts and emotions, by imagination. Thoughts define that shape—and words help to define those thoughts. That’s why wizards usually use words to help them with their spells. Words provide a sort of insulation as the energy of magic burns through a spell caster’s mind.”

“I can't be under arrest now... I don't have time.”

“There was a click of high heels in the hall behind us, and a young woman appeared. She was pretty enough, I suspected, but in the tight black dress, black hose, and with her hair slicked back like that, it was sort of threatening. She gave me a slow, cold look and said, "So. I see that you’re keeping low company after all, Ravenius."Ever suave, I replied, "Uh. What?""’Ah-ree," Thomas said.I glanced at him.He put his hand flat on the top of his head and said, "Do this."I peered at him.He gave me a look.I sighed and put my hand on the top of my head.The girl in the black dress promptly did the same thing and gave me a smile. "Oh, right, sorry. I didn’t realize.""I will be back in one moment," Thomas said, his accent back. "Personal business.""Right," she said, "sorry. I figured Ennui had stumbled onto a subplot." She smiled again, then took her hand off the top of her head, reassumed that cold, haughty expression, and stalked clickety-clack back to the bistro.I watched her go, turned to my brother while we both stood there with our hands flat on top of our heads, elbows sticking out like chicken wings, and said, "What does this mean?""We’re out of character," Thomas said."Oh," I said. "And not a subplot.""If we had our hands crossed over our chests," Thomas said, "we’d be invisible.""I missed dinner," I said. I put my other hand on my stomach. Then, just to prove that I could, I patted my head and rubbed my stomach. "Now I’m out of character—and hungry.”

“I heard someone walk out of the alley behind me, and my body went tense and tight, despite my weariness.  Then a young woman's voice said, in a passable British accent, "The Little People are easily startled, but they'll soon be back.  And in greater numbers."    I sagged in sudden, exhausted relief.  The bad guys hardly ever quote Star Wars.”

“Technically,' I said, "I'm not breaking any of the Laws of Magic. I'm not robbing you of your will, so I'm clear of the Fourth Law. And you didn't get loose, so I'm clear of the Seventh Law. The Council can bite me.'The bone ridges above Chauncy's eyes twitched. 'Surely, that is merely a colorful euphemism, rather than a statement of desire.''It is.”

“As a whole, people suck. But a person can be extraordinary”

“Tengo lo que puede considerarse una actitud muy anticuada y chovinista hacia las mujeres. Me gusta tratarlas como señoras: abrirles la puerta, invitarlas a cenar cuando tenemos una cita, llevarles flores, retirarles el asiento y todo eso. Si tuviese una mejor opinión de mí mismo, lo llamaría caballerosidad.”

“Am I going to be able to provide a real home for her, man? An education? A real life? What's her college application going to look like: 'Raised on Spooky Island by wizard with GED, please help'?”

“If she were in a race for her life, that roar was the starter pistol. If God were the referee, He had just shouted Go.”

“I thought I told you I didn't want to talk to you, Mr. Dresden." "I like women who play hard to get.”

“but all the things Science had promised us hadn't come to pass. Disease was still a problem. Starvation was still a problem. Violence and crime and war were still problems. In spite of the advance of technology, things just hadn't changed the way everyone had hoped and thought they would.”

“Well. You've got me cornered, don't you? I'm at your mercy." Her lips quirked. She took a drag of her cigarette. "And I like a man who just won't stop.”

“Aer-O-Smith. Arrowsmith. Does the shirt belong to your weapon dealer?”“No.”“Then why do you wear the shirt of someone else’s weapon dealer?”

“Rest. Heal. Sleep. I shall most likely kill you on the morrow.”“You? A Princess Bride quote?” I croaked.“What is that?” she asked.”

“Worry is fear in disguise. And fear will eat you from the inside out if you let it.”

“You're a cop. I need a doughnut.”

“My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. I'm a wizard. I work out of an office in midtown Chicago. As far as I know, I'm the only openly practicing professional wizard in the country. You can find me in the yellow pages, under "Wizards." Believe it or not, I'm the only one there. My ad looks like this:HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARDLost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other EntertainmentYou'd be surprised how many people call just to ask me if I'm serious.”

“There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power.”

“Lady Aquitaine sighed. “Then it all hinges on Scipio. He has a rather irritating talent for impersonating a fulcrum.”

“Stop," Kincaid said in a calm voice. "Unclench.""Unclench what?" Murphy demanded."Unclench your ass.""Excuse me?""You're going to trip the beam. You need another quarter inch. Relax.""I am relaxed," Murphy growled."Oh," Kincaid said. "Damn, great ass then.”

“I always considered myself a loner.I mean, not like a poor-me, Byron-esque, I-should-have-brought-a-swimming-buddy loner. I mean the sort of person who doesn’t feel too upset about the prospect of a weekend spent seeing no one, and reading good books on the couch. It wasn’t like I was a people hater or anything. I enjoyed activities and the company of friends. But they were a side dish. I always thought I would be happy without them.”

“It was one of those moments that would have had dramatic music if my life were a movie, but instead I got a radio jingle for some kind of submarine sandwich place blaring over the store's ambient stereo. The movie ofmy life must be really low-budget.”

“The door burst open. Murphy came through it, her eyes living flames of azure blue, her hair a golden coronet around her. She held a blazing sword in her hand and she shone so bright and beautiful and terrifying in her anger that it was hard to see. The Sight, I realized, dimly. I was seeing her for who she was.”

“Somewhere out there was a village I'd deprived of it's idiot.”

“If I lived through the next day or so, I needed to start keeping track of where these jokers liked to get their bloodthirsty freak on. It might give me an edge someday. Or at least a list of places that could use a nice burning down. I hadn't burned down a building in ages.”

“I read an article once that said that when women have a conversation, they're communicating on five levels. They follow the conversation that they're actually having, the conversation that is specifically being avoided, the tone being applied to the overt conversation, the buried conversation that is being covered only in subtext, and finally the other person's body language. That is, on many levels, astounding to me. I mean, that's like having a freaking superpower. When I, and most other people with a Y chromosome, have a conversation, we're having a conversation. Singular. We're paying attention to what is being said, considering that, and replying to it. All these other conversations that have apparently been booing on for the last several thousand years? I didn't even know that they existed until I read that stupid article, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. ...So, ladies, if you ever have some conversation with your boyfriend or husband or brother or male friend, and you are telling him something perfectly obvious, and he comes away from it utterly clueless? I know it's tempting to thing to yourself, 'The man can't possibly be that stupid!'But yes. Yes, he can. Our innate strengths just aren't the same. We are the mighty hunters, who are good at focusing on one thing at a time. For crying out loud, we have to turn down the radio in the car if we suspect we're lost and need to figure out how to get where we're going. That's how impaired we are. I'm telling you, we have only the one conversation. Maybe some kind of relationship veteran like Michael Carpenter can do two, but that's pushing the envelope. Five simultaneous conversations? Five?Shah. That just isn't going to happen. At least, not for me.”

“Hush, Harry. Or you'll go to the special hell."I blinked at that, confused. I'm not supposed to be the guy who doesn't get the reference joke, dammit.”

“The last time I was at a supernatural shindig, I got poisoned and then everything there tried to kill me. So I burned the whole place to the ground.”

“She was furious that I had seen her true form, horrified and embarrassed that I had stripped her disguise away and seen the creature beneath. And she was afraid that I could take away even her mask, forever, with my power.”

“They say we wizards are subtle. But believe you me, we've got nothing, nothing at all, on women.”

“A pure heart and mind only takes you so far - sooner or later the hormones have their say, too.”

“Karrin, eh?" Thomas asked.I nodded. "She's real serious about order. A man dying, she can understand. A man coming back. That's different.""Isn't she Catholic?" Thomas asked. "Don't they have a guy?”

“Thwart," I said. "To prevent someone from accomplishing something by means of visiting gratuitous violence upon his smarmy person.""I'm pretty sure that isn't the definition." Sarissa said."It is today.”

“Molly blinked, then looked at Thomas and said, "Wait a minute.... We're his flunkies.""You, may be," Thomas said, sneering. "I'm his thug. I'm way higher than a flunky.""You are high if you think I'm taking any orders from you," Molly said tartly.”

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

“It made me feel better. Mouse might not have been thesmartest creature on earth, but he was steady, kind, loyal, andwas possessed of the uncanny wisdom of beasts for knowingwhom to trust. I might not have been a superhero, but Mousethought that I was pretty darned cool. That meant something. Itwould have to be enough.”

“Whenever it gets too dark, think of the good things you have, the good times you've had. It will help. I promise.”

“Where is your unit?" Murphy asked.I wiggled my eyebrows at her. "Right where it's always been, dollface.”

“You can't abandon life just because it's scary, and just because you get hurt.”

“Life is precious, fragile, fleeting - and Murphy's life was one of my favorites.”

“The fire of my tribulations had not simply been pain to be endured. It had been an agent of transformation. After all that I'd been through, I'd changed. Not for the worse, I was pretty sure--at least not yet. But only a moron or a freaking lunatic could have faced the things I had and remained unfazed by them.”

“He fell into step beside me and we both got into the Blue Beetle — he got in the red door. I got in the white one, and we peered out over the grey hood[...]”

“I was doing the new Summer Lady a favor, running down a roguestorm sylph. Got to go all over the place in those tornado-chasergeekmobiles. You should have seen the look on the driver's face when herealized that the tornado was chasing us.”

“A pair of dolphins swept by us in the water, flicking their heads out to get a look at us as they went. One of them made a chittering sound that wasn't very melodic. The other twitched its tail and splashed a little water our way, all in good fun. They weren't the attractive Flipper kind of dolphins. They were regular dolphins that aren't as pretty and don't get cast on television. Maybe they just refused to sell out and see a plastic surgeon. I held up a fist to them. Represent.”

“It doesn't make you a monster to want, she said, her voice very gentle. It's what you do with it that matters.”

“Laughter, like love, has power to survive the worst things life has to offer. And to do it with style.”

“Chocolate fends off all kinds of nasty stuff. And if you get hungry while warding off evil, you have a snack. It's multipurpose equipment.”

“We all must die. There is no better way to do so than in the pursuit of something you love.”

“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. Not against the stains on theirs.”