Johnny Marcone: Do you know what I think? — Jim Butcher

"Harry Dresden: Its a place with a history, the neighbors are quiet, and my rent is cheap—though less so than it was before the demon thrashed my place."

"Harry Dresden: Keep in mind that this appears in the same book of the Bible that approves the death sentence for a child who curses his parents, owners of oxen who injure someone through the owners negligence, anybody who works or kindles a fire on Sunday, and anyone who has sex with an animal."

"Harry Dresden: The world is getting weirder. Darker every single day. Things are spinning around faster and faster, and threatening to go completely awry. Falcons and falconers. The center cannot hold. But in my corner of the country, Im trying to nail things down. I dont want to live in Victors jungle, even if it did eventually devour him. I dont want to live in a world where the strong rule and the weak cower. Id rather make a place where things are a little quieter. Where trolls stay the hell under their bridges and where elves dont come swooping out to snatch children from their cradles. Where vampires respect the limits, and where the faeries mind their ps and qs. My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. Im in the book."

"Harry Dresden: A little humiliation and ego deflation, now and then, is good for apprentices. Mine sighed miserably."

"Harry Dresden: We still hadnt learned, though, that growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good youre just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something. Each time, you come out of it a little stronger, and at some point you realize that there are more flavors of pain than coffee. Theres the little empty pain of leaving something behind-graduating, taking the next step forward, walking out of something familiar and safe into the unknown. Theres the big, whirling pain of life upending all of your plans and expectations. Theres the sharp little pains of failure, and the more obscure aches of successes that didnt give you what you thought they would. There are the vicious, stabbing pains of hopes being torn up. The sweet little pains of finding others, giving them your love, and taking joy in their life as they grow and learn. Theres the steady pain of empathy that you shrug off so you can stand beside a wounded friend and help them bear their burdens."

"Harry Dresden: As I pulled into the parking lot, I reflected that odds were that not a lot of clandestine meetings involving mystical assassination, theft of arcane power, and the balance of power in the realms of the supernatural had taken place in a Wal-Mart Super Center. But then again, maybe they had. Hell, for all I knew, the Mole Men used the changing rooms as a place to discuss plans for world domination with the Psychic Jellyfish from Planet X and the Disembodied Brains-in-a-Jar from the Klaatuu Nebula. I know I wouldn’t have looked for them there."