“It is possible to communicate beautifullym or boringly, in every language on Earth. But people don't like to believe this. They make self-aggrandizing myths instead.”

“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”

“I know it's a bit self-aggrandizing.""Hey, you're stealing my eulogy," Isaac said. "My first bit is about how you were a self-aggrandizing bastard.”

“Ixion exists as an antidote to the rules and conventions of other places. We believe that indulging in pleasure will make better people. Self-denial and discipline and virtue are all myths invented to control you.”

“Christmas makes me schmaltzy. I'm proud to be level-headed, even a little tough most of the time. But once a year I like to believe that peace on earth may be possible and calories don't count.”

“I recalled the myth that I had once heard as a university student – thirty-six hidden saints in the world, all of them doing the work of humble men, carpenters, cobblers, shepherds. They bore the sorrows of the earth and they had a line of communication with God, all except one, the hidden saint, who was forgotten. The forgotten one was left to struggle on his own, with no line of communication to that which he so hugely needed. Corrigan had lost his line with God: he bore the sorrows on his own, the story of stories.”