“I hear you've been with every Rephaite in a skirt.'Crap. Where did that come from?'Who told you that?' HIs smile shifts into something less amused. 'Daniel. Who else? The prick.''Is he a liar?'Rafa leans against the pale wall. 'I haven't been with everyone.''What about Taya?''Hell, no. I'm no monk, but I have standards.'I wonder what else Daniel was wrong about. 'What about me?'Rafa's teasing smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. 'You had standards too.”

“I know exactly who I am. It’s everyone else who seems to be having a problem.”

“We're quiet for a moment. And then: 'Why did you call me Matt?''It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now that I know you, I realise I should have called that character Dick.'He laughs, and then the couch shakes. 'Honestly, Gabe, I forgot you could be this much fun.”

“He guides my fingers under his hair to the nape of his neck. To the shape of a crescent moon.”

“Morning after morning, I wake up with him lingering in my thoughts and I feel guilty without having any idea why.”

“I think I've been very lucky. The readers who write to me say they like the characters and the sense of a real world, often one they don't otherwise know about. And usually there's a funny bit in there somewhere.”

“There is still one of which you never speak.'Marco Polo bowed his head.'Venice,' the Khan said.Marco smiled. 'What else do you believe I have been talking to you about?'The emperor did not turn a hair. 'And yet I have never heard you mention that name.'And Polo said: 'Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice.”