For a moment he thought she was about to hit him, which would have been bad, or even start crying, which would have been much, much worse.

Some of the things are the same no matter which world you're in, kid. One of 'em is this: The quickest way out of something is usually straight through it.

A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick -- a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.

A god's relationship to the world, even a world in which he was walking, was about as emotionally connected as that of a computer gamer playing with knowledge of the overall shape of the game and armed with a complete set of cheat codes.

I was not happy as a child, although from time to time I was content. I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.

There is a proverbial saying chiefly concerned with warning against too closely calculating the numerical value of un-hatched chicks.

And he waited. It was only for a few seconds, but it felt like a small forever.