“Myths are lies; but I believe in the power of myths the way I believe in rocks.”

“I was father to the land. I saved my people. I was... King."By... earth," he said, more a movement of the lips than a thing of the throat and air. "By... sky..."Another breath, and it did hurt a little now. The next was harder. The women leaned over him, the mothers of his children. He blinked once more. His own mother, her black braids swinging as she rocked his hurt away. She was singing to him:"Manabozho saw some ducksHey, hey, heya heySaid 'Come little brothers, sing and dance';Hey, hey, heya hey--”

“Mackenzies buried a rapist at a crossroads, with a spear thrust in the soil above; and they buried him living when they could, as a sacrifice to turn aside the anger of the Earth Powers.”

“Clan custom and law held that it was the public declaration of intent and then living together that made a handfasting; the ceremonies simply bore witness to it and asked blessings and luck of the Powers on the new family. He knew Christians thought that the ceremony was the marriage, though.”

“Fear worked both ways - if you suppressed the physical symptoms, it calmed your mind.”

“(Referring to an obsession with Tolkien's Middle Earth): I meet a beautiful American heiress, I like her, she likes me . . . and then she turns out to be a fundamentalist with a more literal interpretation of scripture than I feel comfortable with. Only our bible was written by an Oxford don about sixty years ago.”

“There may be a worse form of government than theocracy in the long run, but offhand I can't think of any.”