"Blade grumbled about the absurdities of the theological imagination and why didn’t people have sense enough to smother would-be priests in their cradles?"

“Rich men have dreams. Poor men die to make them come true.”

“If I had my druthers I’d be twenty-three years old for the rest of my life. Which would last another three thousand years.”

“We are not really a godless bunch. We are just the sort who ignore the gods—probably in the unconscious hope that the gods will not notice us.”

“One’s own yesterday is a ghost that will not be laid. Death is the only exorcism.”

“I have seen it before. Little people have to hate, have to blame someone for their own inadequacies.”

“Exact words were of no consequence. At heart the squabble was as old as humanity itself, fug-headed antiques locking horns with omniscient youth.”