“Absence is one of the most useful ingredients of family life, and to dose it rightly is an art like any other.”

“Power doesn’t always roar.... The art of exerting power is an art used in doses - the more hidden it is the more effective.”

“There might be a charm in the black arts section of the library, but black earth magic used nasty ingredients—like indispensable people parts—and I wasn’t going to go there.”

“To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarates, the performing arts (such as acting and dance) entertain. Literature, however, retreats from life by turning in into slumber. The other arts make no such retreat— some because they use visible and hence vital formulas, others because they live from human life itself. This isn't the case with literature. Literature simulates life. A novel is a story of what never was, a play is a novel without narration. A poem is the expression of ideas or feelings a language no one uses, because no one talks in verse.”

“Family, like arsenic, works best in small doses...unless you prefer to die.”

“A family is like medicine." She twisted her lips into a sardonic smile. "Best in small doses.”