She could decide how she was going to be. She had a choice. Life could be an endless series of joyless chores, or she could get totally pumped and make it fun. There were bad things, and there were good things, but she got to choose which things to focus on. Her mom focused only on the bad things. Abby didn’t have to.

Magicians think they’re wise and witty, full of patter and panache, walking around like they don’t deserve to be shot in the back of the head and dumped in a lake. For all the grandeur of its self-regard, magic consists of nothing more than making a total stranger feel stupid. Worse, the magician usually dresses like a jackass”.

Abby and Gretchen still kept up, but it was phone calls and letters, then postcards and voicemail, and finally emails and Facebook likes. There was no falling-out, no great tragedy, just a hundred thousand trivial moments they didn’t share, each one an inch of distance between them, and eventually those inches added up to miles.

When those things happened, they learned that although those inches may add up to miles, sometimes those miles were only inches after all.

Even after everything that came later, when everything in her life hurt, the memory of those nights wrapped her in a soft, sweet glow that often carried her away to sleep.

Amy would honor the first commandment of keeping her job: Do not look like an idiot in front of anyone who can fire you.

Dogs are good and often form armies to assist humans fighting Satan, whereas cats can go either way.

A reader lives many lives,” James Harris said. “The person who doesn’t read lives but one.

These false prophets come wandering into town, take hold of your mind, and lead you down a primrose path... People fall for honeyed words.

Everyone’s hungry for our children,” she said, and her voice cracked. “The whole world wants to gobble up colored children and no matter how many it takes it just licks its lips and wants more.