April

“Neel takes a sharp breath and I know exactly what it means. It means: I have waited my whole life to walk through a secret passage built into a bookshelf.”
― Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

“I'd hate to find out that the universe really wasn't conspiring against me. It would jerk the rug out from under my persecution complex.”
― Jim Butcher, Grave Peril

“Look,” Anil says, after Billy has explained enough of this. “Just cut to the chase.”

“The chase,” Billy says. He knocks back the new shot that the bartender has set up for him. He wipes his chin with the back of his hand. “The chase is that at the end of it she said she just wanted me to say one thing. She just wanted me to tell her that everything was going to be okay and that things were going to get easier from here on out.”

“Okay, yeah,” says Anil. “And you responded by saying—?”

“I responded by saying that it would be ethically unsound for me to make a claim, for the purposes of comfort, that I couldn’t be certain was true under the present circumstances.”

Anil opens his mouth and then shuts it again. Finally he offers this: “No offense, man, but you’re a fucking idiot.”

“I’m aware.”

“Fucking,” Anil says, ticking it off on his thumb. “Idiot,” he concludes, ticking this one off on his pointer finger.”
― Jeremy Bushnell, The Weirdness

“What have I earned from you, Valek? Loyalty? Respect? Trust?"

"You have my attention. But give me what I want, and you can have everything.”
― Maria V. Snyder, Poison Study