“The universe was bad enough without people poking it.”

“For the first time in her life Granny wondered whether there might be something important in all these books people were setting store by these days, although she was opposed to books on strict moral grounds, since she had heard that many of them were written by dead people and therefore it stood to reason reading them would be as bad as necromancy. Among the many things in the infinitely varied universe with which Granny did not hold was talking to dead people, who by all accounts had enough troubles of their own.”

“It was amazing how many friends you could make by being bad at things, provided you were bad enough to be funny.”

“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.”

“Lots of people would be as cowardly as me if they were brave enough.”

“Why not? If enough people believe, you can be god of anything…”

“You'll get into dreadful trouble and it won't be my fault. You are bad people.”