The Sandman (comic book)

"It is time for me to walk the abyss. Time to reclaim my own. I must talk to the Morningstar. I do not have high hopes for the meeting."

"When a world ends, theres always something left over. A story, perhaps, or a vision, or a hope. This inn is a refuge, after the lights go out. For a while."

"'I am that merry wanderer of the night'? I am that giggling-dangerous-totally-bloody-psychotic-menace-to-life-and-limb, more like it." "Shush, Peaseblossom. The puck might hear you!"

"Despair, Desires sister and twin, is queen of her own bleak bourne. It is said that scattered through Despairs domain are a multitude of tiny windows, hanging in the void. Each window looks out onto a different scene, being, in our world, a mirror. Sometimes you will look into a mirror and feel the eyes of Despair upon you, feel her hook catch and snag on your heart."

"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, sees Helens beauty in a brow of egypt. The poets eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from Earth to Heaven. And, as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown... the poets pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name."

"Destiny is the oldest of the Endless; in the Beginning was the Word, and it was traced by hand on the first page of his book, before ever it was spoken aloud. ... Destiny smells of dust and the libraries of night. He leaves no footprints. He casts no shadow."

"And they left, slowly, one by one, with reluctance, leaving the safety of the light for the chill certainties of the darkness. It seemed like the night sucked them up, took them into its dark heart. It seemed like the darkness swallowed them... perhaps it did."

"And she wrapped her slimy body around his, and she whispered his name into his ear. And he screams, "Kill me, for Gods sake, just get it over with." But she licks her lips with a long worm tongue, and she shakes her head. "A meal this good must never be hurried," she says. "Just hold still, boy, and let me enjoy myself." And she takes her first, gentle bite from his cheek with her sharp, sharp teeth..."

"I left because I was curious. And because I was tired. Life as a human contains substance I never dreamed of in the Dreaming, Lord. The little victories, and the tiny defeats. I had my reasons."

"Eblis OShaughnessy: You were created and gifted by five of the Endless, but you can neither dream nor, ultimately, destroy, and that shall be your triumph and that shall be your tragedy."

"I bind you, Loki Sky Walker, malice-monger. I bind you with the guts of Narvi, your son. I bind you with frost and with fire, and with the weight of the world."

"Desire smells almost subliminally of summer peaches, and casts two shadows: one black and sharp-edged, the other translucent and forever wavering, like heat haze. ... Desire smiles in brief flashes, like sunlight glinting from a knife-edge. And there is much else that is knife-like about Desire. Never a possession, always the possessor, with skin as pale as smoke, and eyes tawny and sharp as yellow wine: Desire is everything you have ever wanted. Whoever you are. Whatever you are. Everything."