“If you weren't around, I'd probably be someplace way the hell off. In the woods or some goddamn place. You're the only reason I'm around, practically.”

“You know what I think my best quality is? I think I'm nice to have around. I'd hate it if I weren't around!”

“Stairs. This is Hell. Hell is stairs, was all Theo could think. I'd sell my soul for a goddamn elevator. But I don't have a soul, do I? I'm some kind of fairy.Okay, settle for an escalator, then.”

“When they come and the guns are thundering and the men are falling all around you, there is only one way you will stop it. You are going to have to kill. So you be the best goddamned killer there is.”

“Last reason for reading horror: it’s a rehearsal for death. It’s a way to get ready. People say there’s nothing sure but death and taxes. But that’s not really true. There’s really only death, you know. Death is the biggie. Two hundred years from now, none of us are going to be here. We’re all going to be someplace else. Maybe a better place, maybe a worse place; it may be sort of like New Jersey, but someplace else. The same thing can be said of rabbits and mice and dogs, but we’re in a very uncomfortable position: we’re the only creatures—at least as far as we know, though it may be true of dolphins and whales and a few other mammals that have very big brains—who are able to contemplate our own end. We know it’s going to happen. The electric train goes around and around and it goes under and around the tunnels and over the scenic mountains, but in the end it always goes off the end of the table. Crash.”

“...If there's a noise in the woods, and there's nobody around to hear it, is it really a noise?""Of course it is," she replied calmly."How did you reach that conclusion?" Beldin demanded."Because there's no such thing as an empty place, uncle. There are always creatures around --wild animals, mice, insects, birds --and they can all hear.""But what if there weren't? What if the woods are truly empty?""Why waste your time talking about an impossibility?”