Being a hero, the man had observed, is largely a matter of knowing one’s cues.

The real problem with being around James was that he was always the hero. And what did that make you? Either the sidekick or the villain.

By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself should be doing, and he wasn't doing it.

The process of learning is a nonstop orgy of wonderment.

You don't want to move toward some utopian literary situation where everybody's free of all conventions. That's ridiculous! Conventions are what you need. You have nothing to break down if you don't have conventions.

Magic is wild, dangerous stuff. You never realize how useful limitations are until it's much too late.

Magic: it was what happened when the mind met the world, and the mind won for a change.