Nightlife

“When life gives you lemons. . . You might as well shove 'em where the sun don't shine, because you sure as hell aren't ever going to see any lemonade.”

“We all have our security blankets in this world. Some are just sharper than others.”

“Most kids don't believe in fairy tales very long. Once they hit six or seven they put away "Cinderella" andher shoe fetish, "The Three Little Pigs" with their violation of building codes, "Miss Muffet" and herwell-shaped tuffet—all forgotten or discounted. And maybe that's the way it has to be. To survive in theworld, you have to give up the fantasies, the make-believe. The only trouble is that it's not allmake-believe. Some parts of the fairy tales are all too real, all too true. There might not be a Red RidingHood, but there is a Big Bad Wolf. No Snow White, but definitely an Evil Queen. No obnoxiously cuteblond tots, but a child-eating witch… yeah. Oh yeah.”

“What're you still doing up? You know all good little ninjas should be in bed, visions of homicidal sugarplums dancing in their heads.”

“At least that's what his note said, along with a scathing reminder that dishes didn't wash themselves and the fungus in the bathroom was one day away from evolving into sentient life. I folded the note into an airplane and sailed it across the room. It ended up perched jauntily on top of the ancient television. It looked good there and I left it as a tribute to freedom-loving fungi everywhere.”

“Snap judgments? I'd gotten over those about the time I was toilet trained. Swore off diapers and faith in the human experience all in one week.”

“Most kids don't believe in fairy tales very long. Once they hit six or seven they put away "Cinderella" and her shoe fetish, "The Three Little Pigs" with their violation ofbuilding codes, "Miss Muffet" and her well‐shaped tuffet—all forgotten or discounted.And maybe that's the way it has to be. To survive in the world, you have to give up the fantasies, the make‐believe.”

“And who died and made you boss?" But I knew a lost cause when I saw it and was already pulling my hair back with nimble fingers. Niko slapped a shoulder holster against my chest. "No one. Like all truly great dictators, I seized that power myself. Now finish up. We leave in five minutes.”

“Every inner touch, every one of its fingerprints on my brain, burned like acid. It shredded the walls of my soul like tissue paper, it clawed its way into my very center, I couldn’t tell anymore where it began and I ended. It poured into me like a river into the sea, mixing, melding, until we were one. One. For better or worse. Until death do us part.”

“There are monsters among us. There always have been and there always will be. I’ve known that ever since I can remember, just like i’ve always known I was one.”

“There are a lot of truths in this world. When it rains it pours. It's always darkest before the dawn. He who smelt it dealt it.”

“Alone: it was no way to live and it was no way to die.”

“The front door had been secure at some point in time, I suppose, but now it usually hung ajar by a few inches, the gap‐toothed grin of a dirty old man.”

“The guy had guts—I had to give him that. Later on I was hoping for a first-hand look at them.”

“But hoping you never saw someone again is a damn sight different from wishing them dead.”

“Anyone with less intestinal fortitude, inhuman or not, would've been curled up on the floor sucking his thumb. I basked in the attention and took it as my due. I'd always known I was a star. Without me, the Auphe were nothing. I was the key, and the gate was a lock only I could open. At this moment I was, as I'd always suspected, God. Spreading my arms, I let my head fall back and closed my eyes, my streaming hair a silk touch on my shoulder blades. "Suffer the little children to come unto me." Opening my eyes, I smiled gently at the Auphe.”

“in a world of monsters, you had to be a ghost to survive.”

“Get a grip, change your shorts, and move on to the task at hand.”

“We all have our security blankets in this world. Some are just sharper than others." (Nightlife, Rob Thurman, 28)”

“I abandoned the crate and curled up on the floor. There was no risking a hotel now, not on the last night. There would be no electric blanket, no champagne, no room service. What a world. It was the same world that would end tomorrow night.”

“wasn’t saying he smelled like homemade cookies or baking bread. I hadn’t had that kind of home—probably no one outside a Disney movie had.”