'Don't think of it as dying,' said Death. 'Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush.'

Humans had built a world inside the world, which reflected it in pretty much the same way as a drop of water reflected the landscape. And yet ... and yet ... Inside this little world they had taken pains to put all the things you might think they would want to escape from - hatred, fear, tyranny, and so forth. Death was intrigued. They thought they wanted to be taken out of themselves, and every art humans dreamt up took them further in. He was fascinated.

It doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works.

When I was a kid, I read the science-fiction shelves, and I read the fantasy shelves.

Don't do anything I wouldn't do, if you ever find anything I wouldn't do.

Mort was hurt by this. It was one thing not to want to marry someone, but quite another to be told they didn't want to marry you.

That's what I don't like about magic, it does everything by magic!