“I know you all think I'm a magician, but I'm not. The magic comes out of the booksthemselves, and I have no more idea than you or any of your men how it works.”

“You have more power, more control than you could possibly imagine. My heart is in your hands. That's not bullshit. I'm not saying stuff I think you want to hear in order to manipulate you. I can't be any more honest than this. I'm yours, baby. I'm putting it out there. My heart, my soul, it all belongs to you.”

“I know magicians and I know magic and I say this: all magicians lie and this one more than most.”

“Do you have any idea how attractive you are?Well, I'm better than roseanne Barr, I suppose.”

“I don't know how this works. Or why. I stopped trying to figure it out a long time ago. I'm never going to figure it out, any more than a normal person figure out his or her own existence. After a while, you have to be at peace with the fact that you simply are. There is no way to know why. You can have theories, but there will never be proof.”

“I'm surprised you don't know more about magic, Sister Verna. There is a word that is magic. It can accomplish more than you might think. Maybe you have heard it before. It is the word 'please.”