“All that children need is love, a grown-up to take responsibility for them, and a soft place to land.”

“Children needed love, a reliable source of comfort, and an adult willing to take responsibility for them.”

“I wanted to know how humans came up with a view of the world that had so little magic in it. I needed to understand how they convinced themselves that magic wasn’t important.”

“My ideas about vampires may be romantic, but your attitudes toward women need a major overhaul.”

“It is a blessing as well as a burden to love so much that you can hurt so badly when love is gone.”

“I saw the logic that they used, and the death of a thousand cuts as experimental scientists slowly chipped away at the belief that the world was an inexplicably powerful, magical place. Ultimately they failed, though. The magic never really went away. It waited, quietly, for people to return to it when they found the science wanting.”

“Matthew kept hinting that his desire - for blood, chiefly- was so strong that it put everything else at risk. But vampires weren’t the only creatures who had to manage such strong impulses. Much of what qualified as magic was simply desire in action. Witchcraft was different- that took spells and rituals. But magic? A wish, a need, a hunger too strong to be denied- these could turn into deeds when they cross a witch’s mind.”