Glen Cook

“You should forget Ami. I’m much more interesting.”

In that instance I decided she was wrong. Amiranda Crest was a woman. This one wore a woman’s body but the creature inside was spoiled, vain, snobbish, and probably not very bright.

I didn’t know him. That was all right. There are a lot of people I don’t know, but I wondered if he was one of the ones I wanted to keep on not knowing.

“I’m beginning to wonder if we ought not to re-examine your diet, Morley. Such unrelenting pessimism must have some deficiency at its base.”

“The only deficiencies bothering me are of good luck, financial wherewithal, and female companionship.”

I decided she wouldn’t show. What was in it for her? I was pretty sure she was a gal who didn’t take a deep breath without calculating her return on investment. Such a shame; all that beauty wasted.

Or maybe I was too suspicious. This business can do that to you. You have to remember to keep it simple. You don’t need to look for the great sinuous, complicated schemes reeking of subterfuge and malice when a little stupidity followed by desperate cover-up efforts will explain everything just as well. And you have to remember to keep an eye out for who stands to gain. That alone will flag your villain eight times out of ten.

We like to know that our guests are out when they head out. Some of them are so slow they might not remember which side of the door they’re supposed to be on when it shuts.

When you consider the possibility of wizards being involved in anything, the smart thing to do is to assume the worst.

Folks always believe their own racism is the result of divine inspiration, incontestably valid.

I got a little too intense. He backed off and gave me the look you give the nut on the corner preaching that pixies are the secret masters and if we don’t do something they’re going to run off with our sisters and daughters.

Time was the enemy never to be conquered and there were no reserves to help stay the tide.

I’m tempted to invoke penalties on the lot and let the gods distinguish between the wicked and the merely incompetent.

You get paranoid in this business. But maybe paranoids get that way because of all the people out to get them.