"Reading one book is like eating one potato chip."
— Diane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard)

"Footsteps in the snow
suggest where you have been,
point to where you were going:
but when they suddenly vanish,
never dismiss the possibility
of flight..."
— Diane Duane

"Something always happens. You still have to promise stuff anyway. If you have to work to make the promises true... it's like a spell. You have to say the words every time you want the results."
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 3: High Wizardry (Digest))

""Go ahead! Panic!" screamed Picchu from somewhere in the background. "Do it now and avoid the June rush! Fear death by water!""
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 2: Deep Wizardry)

""Power," Nita heard her father say behind her. "Creation. Forces from before time. This is--this business is for saints, not children!"
"Even saints have to start somewhere," Carl said softly. "And it's always been the children who have saved the universe from the previous generation and remade the universe in their own image." "
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 3: High Wizardry (Digest))

""And we will cause it to be well-made, this Sacrifice. You, young and never loving; I, old and never loved. Such a Song the Sea will never have seen.""
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 2: Deep Wizardry)

""Virtue," he said. "The real thing. It's not some kind of cuddly teddy bear you can keep on the shelf until you need a hug. It's dangerous, which is why it makes people so nervous. Virtue has its own agenda, and believe me, it's not always yours. The word itself means strength, power. And when it gets loose, you'd better watch out."
"Something bad might happen..."
"Impossible. But possibly something painful"
-A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane "
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 6: A Wizard Alone)

"“Honey, have you seen your sister?”
“She’s on Jupiter, Mom.”
"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 5: The Wizard's Dilemma)

"It’d be a poor kind of world where there was just one explanation for things. ---Rhiow"
— Diane Duane (To Visit the Queen)

"It's always been the children who have saved the universe from the previous generation and remade the world in their own image. ---Carl"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 3: High Wizardry (Digest))

"
""Except when the freedom is one you don't choose to grant," Memeki said, more loudly this time. She was shaking herself all over, struggling to stand stright again. "You hold our hope with one claw and take it away with her other! I may be weak and doomed soon to die, but I will die as an I, not just one more nameless scarp of shell to be thrown out into the sucking mud! No matter how little a time it lasts, I will be what all these are" -she looked around at Kit and Ponch and Nita and the others-"selves unto themselves and being what matters to each other! Such a life, even a breath's worth of it, is better than anything you've ever given me!" Memeki was trembling again, but with passion with determinatin, desperate and doomed. She took a stem toward the dias, and another, her claw lifted not in that old gesture of submission, but in one more like a warrior's threat. "I will be what the Voice said I was, the Hesper I will be the Aeon of Light, the Power that made a different choice from yours. I will be the Star that did not fall, no matter how little a time the light lasts!"" "
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 8: Wizards at War)

"" Fred started to follow, but Nita caught him in cupped hands, holding him back for a moment. Fred! Did we do right? Even here she couldn't keep the pain out of her question, the fear that she could have somehow have prevented his death. But Fred radiated a serene and wondering joy that took her breath and reassured her and filled her with wonder to match his, all at once. Go find out, he said.""
— Diane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard)

""Don't be afraid to make corrections! Whether the voice came from her memory or was a last whisper from the blinding new star far above, Nita never knew. But she knew what to do. While Kit was still on the first part of the name she pulled out her pen, her best pen that Fred had saved and changed. She clicked it open. The metal still tingled against her skin, the ink at the point still glittered oddly- the same glitter as the ink with which the bright Book was written. Nita bent quickly over the Book and with the pen, in lines of light, drew from the final circle an arrow pointing up-ward, the way out, the symbol that said change could happen- if, only if-" "
— Diane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard)

"How am I supposed to save the universe with all this noise?!"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 8: Wizards at War)

"“You look concerned,” Roshaun said from behind her.
Dairine scowled over her shoulder at him. “The whole universe is in danger,” she said, “and we’re not sure how to save it, assuming it can be saved. One of the Powers That Be has stuffed secret messages into my brain without telling me. And a friend of mine who happens to be my wizard’s manual is being reprogrammed with software that even these guys haven’t had time to beta test! Wow, Roshaun, why would I need to be concerned?”
Roshaun glanced at the ground. Another chair appeared for him, a slight distance from Dairine’s. He lowered himself into it, stretching out his legs with a sigh. “Sarcasm,” he said, “Amusing, if ineffective.”
"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 8: Wizards at War)

""Beware! said the peridxis's voice in her head. Don't let It's shadowy little truth overwhelm the greater one."
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 8: Wizards at War)

""Nita stood still, listening to Joanne's footsteps hurrying away, a little faster every second- and slowly began to realize that she'd gotten what she asked for too- the ability to break the cycle of anger and loneliness, not necessarily for others, but at least for herself. It wouldn't even take the Speech; plain words would do it, and the magic of reaching out. It would take a long time, much longer then something simple like breaking the walls of the worlds, and it would cost more effort than even reading the Book of Night with Moon. But it would be worth it- and eventually it would work. A spell always works. Nita went home." "
— Diane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard)

""The city breathing, burning, living the life thy had preserved. Ten million lives and more. If something should happen to all that life- how terrible! Nita gulped for control as she remembered Fred's word of just this morning, an eternity ago. And this was what being a wizard was about. Keeping terrible things from happening, even when it hurts. Not just power, or control of what ordinary people couldn't control, or delight in being able to make strange things happen. Those were the side effects- not the reason, the purpose." "
— Diane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard)

"All the drawing lacks
is the final touch: To add
eyes to the dragon"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 5: The Wizard's Dilemma)

"Nita stood there horrified. “You just killed him!”
“No,” the Lone One said, “you did. Not a bad start, but then you were intent enough on killing something.”
All around Nita, the snarling of the viruses was getting louder and louder. “Anyway, don’t be too concerned about Pralaya; I’ll find another of his people to replace him if there’s need. Now, though, matters stand as I told you they stood. All we need is your conscious answer to the question. Can we do business?”
Nita stood there, frozen.
And another voice spoke out of the darkness.
“Fairest and Fallen,” Kit said, “one more time…greeting and defiance.”

"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 5: The Wizard's Dilemma)

"What are you thinking of? Dairine demanded. Let me help you—
You need to stay here and let me do this, Roshaun said.
But if I can just—
You can’t, Roshaun said, looking at her with that infuriating, amused expression. But then that’s what “Guarantor” means. If the world can’t pay the price…if the people around you can’t pay the price…you do.
The price? No! Dairine said. No! You don’t even like my little planet—you said so—
No, Roshaun said. Which is possibly the best of all possible reasons to do this.
He stepped out of the wizardry.
“No,” Dairine whispered. “No! Roshaun!”
Roshaun vanished into the fire.
"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 7: Wizard's Holiday)

"“You do have the idea of being ‘just good friends?’”
He gave her a sideways look. “For so high and honorable an estate,” Roshaun said, “ ‘just’ seems a poor modifier to choose.”
"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 8: Wizards at War)

"Nita drank her tea, watching Roshaun read while he maneuvered the lollipop from one side of his mouth to the other. The bulge it produced looked very out of place against his otherwise flawless facial structure.
Roshaun felt Nita’s gaze resting on him, and looked up. “What?”
Nita controlled her smile. “The lollipop…”
“What about it?”
“I hate to say this, but you’re kind of spoiling your grandeur.”
“What grandeur he has,” Dairine remarked.
“Kings are made no less noble by eating,” Roshaun said. “Rather, they ennoble what they eat.”
“Wow, who sold you that one?” Nita said.
"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 8: Wizards at War)

"Reading one book is like eating one potatoe chip"
— Diane Duane

"In Life’s name and for Life’s sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so—till Universe’s end. I will look always toward the Heart of Time, where all times are one, where all our sundered worlds lie whole, as they were meant to be."
— Diane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard)

"It was the Arch-votary, with its patterned shell. Slowly, it approached; those massive claws raised…The Arch-votary stopped, looming up before them. “Evil ones,” it said, “enemies of the Great One, come and be judged.”
Roshaun raised his head and gave the Arch-votary an inexpressibly haughty look. “Killed, perhaps,” he said, “But your dark Master has neither authority nor right to judge us. Therefore, stand away, lackey, and keep silent in the presence of your betters.” "
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 8: Wizards at War)

"“I’m lying on a Star Wars bedspread,” said a dry voice behind them, “Will I ever be able to look myself in the eye again?”
They all turned.
“By the fact that I’m not on Rashah,” Ronan said, looking about him, “but instead apparently in suburban hell, and in contact with this dubious cultural artifact, I take it we won?”

"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 8: Wizards at War)

"Must I accept the barren Gift?
-learn death, and lose my Mastery?
Then let them know whose blood and breath
will take the Gift and set them free:
whose is the voice and whose the mind
to set at naught the well-sung Game-
when finned Finality arrives
and calls me by my secret Name.

Not onld enought to love yet,
but old enough to die, indeed-
-the deatj-fear bites my throat and heart,
fanged cousin to the Pale One's breed.
But past the fear lies life for all-
perhaps for me: and, past my dread,
past loss of Mastery and life,
the Sea shall yet give up Her dead!

Lone Power, I accept your Gift!
Freely I make death a part of me;
By my accept it is bound
into the livs of all the Sea-

yet what I do now binds to it
a gift I feel of equal worth:
I take Death with me, out of Time,
and make of it a path, a birth!

Let the teeth come! As they tear me,
they tear Your ancient hate for aye-
-so rage, proud Power! Fail again,
and see my blood teach Death ro die!"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 2: Deep Wizardry)

"Must I accept the barren Gift?
-learn death, and lose my Mastery?
Then let them know whose blood and breath
will take the Gift and set them free:
whose is the voice and whose the mind
to set at naught the well-sung Game-
when finned Finality arrives
and calls me by my secret Name.

Not old enought to love yet,
but old enough to die, indeed-
-the death-fear bites my throat and heart,
fanged cousin to the Pale One's breed.
But past the fear lies life for all-
perhaps for me: and, past my dread,
past loss of Mastery and life,
the Sea shall yet give up Her dead!

Lone Power, I accept your Gift!
Freely I make death a part of me;
By my accept it is bound
into the livs of all the Sea-

yet what I do now binds to it
a gift I feel of equal worth:
I take Death with me, out of Time,
and make of it a path, a birth!

Let the teeth come! As they tear me,
they tear Your ancient hate for aye-
-so rage, proud Power! Fail again,
and see my blood teach Death to die!"
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 2: Deep Wizardry)

"Blood in the water I sing,
and one who shed it:
deadliest hunger I sing, and one who fed it-
weaving the ancient-most tale
of the Sea's sending:
singing the tragedy,
singing the joy unending
This is our shame-
this is the whole Ocean's glory:
this is the Song of the Twelve.
Hark to the story!
Hearken, and bring it to pass:
swift lest the sorrow
long ago laid to it's rest
devour us tomarrow! "
— Diane Duane (Young Wizards, Book 2: Deep Wizardry)