“...I decided that there was perhaps no ash quite so cold as the one left by an unrealized ambition...”

“But I am happy. And happiness, I have decided, is a noble ambition.”

“For such a career I lacked both endurance and inclination:the stress of ambition left me cold,while the Muse, the creative spirit, was forever urging on methat haven of leisure to which I'd always leaned.The poets of those days I cultivated and cherished:for me, bards were so many gods.”

“Could I write an autobiographical novel, I wonder? Can one make a book out of the very essence of one's self? Perhaps so, if one was left with one's gift stripped bare of all that made it worth having, and nothing else was left...”

“Really unreal world, will you perhaps dothe breathing for me while I am away?”

“Holy shit,' Ash murmured.'Oh, it gets worse.'Ash lifted an eyebrow.'Yeah, apparently when I decide to be an asshole, I go all the way.”