Quotes from Jim Butcher

Life would be unbearably dull if we had answers to all our questions.

There are bad things in the world. There's no getting away from that. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done about them. You can't abandon life just because it's scary, and just because sometimes you get hurt.

There's more magic in a baby's first giggle than in any firestorm a wizard can conjure up, and don't let anyone tell you any different.

Time after time, history demonstrates that when people don't want to believe something, they have enormous skills of ignoring it altogether.

An errand is getting a tank of gas or picking up a carton of milk or something. It is not getting chased by flying purple pyromaniac gorillas hurling incendiary poo!

I'd made the vampire cry. Great. I felt like a real superhero. Harry Dresden, breaker of monsters' hearts.

But there were some things I believed in. Some things I had faith in. And faith isn't about perfect attendance to services, or how much money you put on the little plate. It isn't about going skyclad to the Holy Rites, or meditating each day upon the divine. Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others - even when there's not going to be anyone telling you what a hero you are.

I think that men ought to treat women like something other than weaker men with breasts.

Jobs are a part of life. Maybe you've heard of the concept. It's called work? See, what happens is that you suffer through doing annoying and humiliating things until you get paid not enough money. Like those Japanese game shows, only without all the glory.

I still can't believe, Michael said, sotto voce, that you came to the Vampires' Masquerade Ball dressed as a vampire.

Ack! I said. Fearless master of the witty dialogue, that's me.

You know how confusing the whole good-evil concept is for me.

Smiling always seems to annoy people more than actually insulting them. Or maybe I just have an annoying smile.

It's all right to be afraid. You just don't let it stop you from doing your job.

In the action business, when you don't want to say you ran like a mouse, you call it 'taking cover.' It's more heroic.

There are things you can't walk away from. Not if you want to live with yourself afterward.

Regardless of what I think about Islam or Wicca or any other religion, the fact is that it's a group of people. Every faith has its ceremonies. And since it's made up of people, every faith also has its assholes.

Love is another kind of power, which shouldn't surprise you. Magic comes from emotions, among other things. And when two people are together, in that intimacy, when they really, selflessly love each other it changes them both. It lingers on in the energy of their lives, even when they are apart.

Me and polite have never been on close terms.

There's nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more . . . secure.

Think of every fairy-tale villainess you've ever heard of. Think of the wicked witches, the evil queens, the mad enchantresses. Think of the alluring sirens, the hungry ogresses, the savage she-beasts. Think of them and remember that somewhere, sometime, they've all been real. Mab gave them lessons .

You rush a miracle worker, you get lousy miracles!

Polka will never die.

Don't mess with a wizard when he's wizarding!