"A human has seven litres of blood. This they had taught him in the army. Seven litres, which, with an arterial cut will vent a fountain two or three metres, and take three to four minutes to bleed out."

"Before the next minute had passed, they had all fallen to the ground. Just like that. As though someone had reached inside and turned off a switch.'What happened?' Matt asked, gasping.I went from one person to the next, trying to wake them up, but they were all dead, wrote Daft Donald."

"Everybody knows now that Marie Lightfoot, the true crime writer, is dating Franklin DeWeese, the state attorney of Howard County, Florida. They know I'm a white woman; they know he's a black man. That's not news anymore."

"True sleep eluded me. Morpheus is a capricious god; he comes easily to some and only with greatest difficulty to others. To lure him, it is best to pretend disinterest. Engage the mind in some pursuit unrelated to what is truly desired and allow no distraction from it. For me, nothing works so well as a walk through Rome."

"In life, there are dreary, empty days and there are exciting, full days. You will experience both, for you cannot choose one above the other. May your full days be many."

"The dwarf’s eyes widened—at least I think they widened, since they became much more visible in his hairy face—and he froze.“Would you prefer to retrieve the missive yourself, M’lady Wisp?” he asked.“I’d rather not,” I said. No way was I touching some strange dude’s vest, no matter how impressive his beard."