“When she saw my messy desk, she said she was the same way, and there was no dust on the TV, and I was easy to love. People just need a little help because they are so used to not loving. It's like scoring the clay to make another piece of clay stick to it.”

“For as from the same piece of clay a potter may fashion either a pot or a tile, so the Devil may shape a witch into a wolf or a cat or even a goat, without subtracting from her and without adding to her at all. For this occurs just as clay is first molded into one, then shaped into another form, for the Devil is a potter and his witches are but clay.”

“Closed door means knock," Elena said to Clay, shooing him out.You've been in here for two hours," he said. "She can't need that much work." He frowned as he examined my outfit. "What the hell is she? A tree?""A dryad," Elena said, cuffing him in the arm."Oh, my god," Jamie said, surveying my outfit. "We forgot the bag!""Bag?" Clay said. "What does a dryad need with-""An evening bag," Cassandra said. "A purse.""She's got a purse. It's right there on the bed.""That's a day purse," Cassandra snapped."What, do they expire when the sun goes down?”

“I don't know that she is as amusing as she was when she was a child, but she makes me love her and I like people who make me love them. It saves me so much trouble in making myself love them.”

“There’s an opening at Mom’s campaign,” I say. “She needs all the help she can getnow that she’s totally distracted by Clay Tucker.”“Who the hell’s Clay Tucker?”“The…” Nan lowers her voice, even though all she says is: “…younger manSamantha’s mother’s dating.”“Your ma’s dating?” Tim looks shocked. “I thought she pretty much confined herselfto a vibrator and the shower nozzle since your dad screwed her over.”

“He smelled like leather and water. "I think," she said quietly, now that their mouths were close to each other, "that easy and clean love is not true. It is simply convenient. Messy love, though...that is something to revel in.”