It's the same in real life: Notorious murderers get off scot-free and live happily all their lives, while good people die - sometimes the very best people. That's the way of the world.

Farid had brought an invisible guest with him. Fear.

I'm perfectly happy to know the world at secondhand. It's a lot safer.

The spoken word is nothing. It hardly lives longer than an insect! Only the written word is eternal. - Balbulus

Nothing is more frightening than a fear you cannot name.

The world was a terrible place, cruel, pitiless, dark as a bad dream. Not a good place to live. Only in books could you find pity, comfort, happiness - and love. Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you security and friendship and didn't ask anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly.

Mo could paint pictures in the empty air with his voice alone.