To be godless is probably the first step to innocence," he said, "to lose the sense of sin and subordination, the false grief for things supposed to be lost." So by innocence you mean not an absence of experience, but an absence of illusions." An absence of need for illusions," he said. "A love of and respect for what is right before your eyes.

Do we have to confess our loves to everyone?" asked Thorne softly. "Can we not keep some secrets?

Remember always, he said, that nothing is as precious to us as the magnificent gift of life. Let the moon and the stars always remind you of this-that though we are tiny creatures in this universe, we are filled with life.

Thank God he killed the guy. Oh, now, wait a minute. What kind of a prayer was that!

I broke with my religion in college.

You see,' [Armand] said, 'killing other vampires is very exciting; that is why it is forbidden under penalty of death.

There are too many other inexplicable things around us--horrors, threats, mysteries that draw you in and then inevitably disenchant you. Back to the predictable and humdrum. The prince is never going to come, everybody knows that; and maybe Sleeping Beauty's dead.