“Call no man happy, said Shadow, until he is dead”

“I'm alive,' said Shadow. 'I'm not dead. Remember?''You're not dead,' Laura said. 'But I'm not sure you're alive, either. Not really.”

“The telephone to Shadow's apartment was silent and dead. He thought about getting it connected, but could think of no one he wanted to call. Late one night he picked it up and listened, and was convinced he could hear a wind blowing and a distant conversation between a group of people talking in voiced too low to properly make out. He said, "hello?" and "who's there?" but there was no reply, only a sudden silence and then the faraway sound of laughter, so faint he was not certain he was not imagining it.”

“Jesus. Low-Key Lyesmith," said Shadow. and then he heard what he was saying and he understood. "Loki," he said. "Loki Lie-smith.""You're slow," said Loki, "but you get there in the end." And his lips twisted into a scarred smile and the embers danced in the shadows of his eyes.”

“I asked him if it were a mirage, and he said yes. I said it was a dream, and he agreed, But said it was the desert's dream not his. And he told me that in a year or so, when he had aged enough for any man, then he would walk into the wind, until he saw the tents. This time, he said, he would go on with them.”

“She patted him on the arm. “You’re fucked up, Mister. But you’re cool.” “I believe that’s what they call the human condition,” said Shadow.”

“None of this is truly happening," he said to Shadow. He sounded miserable. "It's all in your head. Best not to think of it.”