"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness."
— Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)

""You can't force love, I realized. It's there or it isn't. If it's not there, you've got to be able to admit it. If it is there, you've got to do whatever it takes to protect the ones you love." "
— Richelle Mead

"He smiled at that, and then his gaze shifted to a spot over my shoulder and it faded. 'These doubts wouldn’t have anything to do with the company you’re keeping of late, would they?'
I didn’t get a chance to answer before the shop door was thrown open and a furious war mage stomped in. Pritkin spotted me and his eyes narrowed.
'You shaved my legs?!'
Mircea looked at me and folded his arms across his chest. I looked from one unhappy face to the other and suddenly remembered that I had somewhere else to be. "
— Karen Chance (Curse the Dawn)

" 'Plan B?' Ivy said. 'What is plan B?'
Jenks reddened. 'Grab the fish and run like hell,' he muttered, and I almost giggled."
— Kim Harrison (A Fistful of Charms)

"'And then there are the rare ones who know love, who understand it. Who freely give of themselves, demanding only a return of that love,that trust.'"
— Kim Harrison (Every Which Way But Dead)

"'What’s your name?' she asked, and surprised herself. But for some reason, she wanted to know.
Dean’s brother—he hadn’t been just some nameless Bad Guy Number Four. This vampire wasn’t,either. He had a name, a history, maybe even people who cared what happened to him.
'My name is none of your business,' he said, and continued to stare out the window, even though there was nothing but blurry brick out there.
'Can I call you None for short?'"
— Rachel Caine (Carpe Corpus)

"'Not really hungry.'
'She’ll eat.' Pritkin said curtly.
'I said —'
'If you starve to death it would damage my professional reputation.'
'I eat plenty.'
'The same does not apply should I strangle you in understandable irritation, however.'
'I’ll have a sandwich,' I told Nick. 'No meat.'"
— Karen Chance (Embrace the Night)

" 'Ivy!' I stammered, then glared at Kisten. 'You told Ivy? Thanks a hell of a lot. Want to call my mom next?'"
— Kim Harrison (Every Which Way But Dead)

"Jenks enthusiastically leaned against the counter and opened the box. Bypassing the plastic knife, he broke off about a third of it and took a huge bite. Ivy watched, appalled, and I shrugged. His mouth moving as he hummed, Jenks finished unpacking the sacks. I was half dead, Ivy was whoring herself to keep me safe, but Jenks was okay as long as he had chocolate."
— Kim Harrison (A Fistful of Charms)

"Ivy turned. 'He bit you on the neck?' she said, deadpan serious but for her eyes. 'Oh, then it's got to be love. She won't let me bite her neck.'"
— Kim Harrison (Dead Witch Walking)

"Urban survival rule 22: Never annoy an armed man."
— Kelley Armstrong (Bitten)

"'How come when mortals want things, their only option is to make a deal with Hell and sell their soul? Why can’t they make deals with God in exchange for good behavior?'
It was another of those rare moments when I’d surprised Carter. I waited for the glib answer I’d mentioned to Seth, something along the lines of goodness being its own reward. The angel considered for several seconds.
'Humans make those deals all the time,' he said finally. 'They just don’t make them with God.'
'Then who are they making them with?' I exclaimed.
'Themselves.'"
— Richelle Mead (Succubus Heat)

"I dodged behind Mac for cover and refused to take the bait. I glanced at my nonexistent watch. 'Oops, look at the time. Guess I have to be going now. Let's not do this again sometime, okay?'
Before I could move, Pritkin was there, jamming the medallion into the skin of my upper arm.'Ow!'He looked at me expectantly. I glared at him. 'That hurt!'
'What do you see?'
'A big red mark,'"
— Karen Chance (Claimed By Shadow)

"'I try to be a good cop. I try to be a good little soldier and follow orders up to a point. But in the end I’m not really a cop, or a soldier. I am a legally sanctioned murderer. I am the Executioner.'"
— Laurell K. Hamilton (Skin Trade)

"Great. I'd been dumped in Hell's waiting room."
— Karen Chance (Touch the Dark)

"Edward smiled, I smiled, even Bernardo smiled. Olaf just looked sinister."
— Laurell K. Hamilton (Skin Trade)

"Grimes believed in what he did, with no doubts. Though he was older than me by over a decade, I suddenly felt old. Some things mark your soul, not in years but in blood and pain and selling off parts of yourself to get the bad guys, until you finally look in the mirror and aren’t sure which side you’re on anymore. There comes a point when having a badge doesn’t make you the good guy, it just makes you one of the guys. I needed to be one of the good guys, or what the hell was I doing?"
— Laurell K. Hamilton (Skin Trade)

"But a slow, deeply satisfied smile came over him, and his breath quickened. 'So softly it starts,' he whispered. 'Foolishly clever and with an unsurvivable trust. It just saved your miserable life, that questionable show of thought, my itchy-witch.' Al’s smile shifted, becoming lighter. 'And now you will live to possibly regret it.' "
— Kim Harrison (The Outlaw Demon Wails)

"There are several cats smoothly moving about, which helped me greatly to relax, for I have always felt that no house is wholly bad where there are cats, and conversely, where there are several cats, a house is bound to be wonderfully charming."
— Hans Holzer (The Ghost Hunter)

"'Big lots,' I said, seeing the eighty-year-old oaks and shady lawns. The houses were set way back and had iron fences and stone drives.
'The harder to hear your neighbors scream, my dear,' was David’s answer, and I sent my head up and down in agreement. "
— Kim Harrison (The Outlaw Demon Wails)

" 'You had this all planned, didn’t you?' I accused. 'Thought you could come in here and seduce me like you do everyone else?' It wasn’t as if I could be angry, lying atop him as I was, but I tried."
— Kim Harrison (Every Which Way But Dead)

"His right ear still held both studs, and I wondered who had the missing earring. I would have asked, but was afraid he’d tell me Ivy had it."
— Kim Harrison (A Fistful of Charms)

"'When good Americans die, they go to Paris,' the ghost said, after taking a drag on a small cigarette.
'But you’re not dead. I suppose the question must be, are you good?'"
— Karen Chance (Embrace the Night)

"I've never even been to Long Island"
— Meg Cabot (Jinx)

"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." He also said, "The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness."
— Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)

""Stare at him," said Ghost. "They won't bite you if you keep staring at them."

Steve backed away. "They bite?"

"Not really. They hiss at you, mostly. The only time geese are ever dangerous is when you happen to be standing on the edge of a cliff. I heard about a guy that almost got killed that way."

"By geese?"

"Yeah, there was a whole flock of them coming after him. All hissing and cackling and stabbing at his ankles with their big ol' beaks. He didn't know you had to stare them right in the eye, and he panicked. They backed him right over a fifty-foot cliff."

"So how come he didn't die?"

"This guy had wings," said Ghost. "He flew away.""
— Poppy Z. Brite (Lost Souls)

"As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking through the window - Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bed-clothes: still it wailed, "Let me in!" and maintained its tenacious gripe, almost maddening me with fear."
— Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights)

"If I'd had enough breath, I would have screamed, both at the sensation and at the sheer pettiness of the bastard who wouldn't allow me even a tiny chance of escape."
— Karen Chance (Touch the Dark)

"The most temptation I'd experienced had been with Tomas, the Senate's spy who had been feeding off me without permission, and Mircea, who was probably plotting some nefarious scheme. I have no taste in men."
— Karen Chance (Touch the Dark)

"As a young man I was scornful about the supernatural but as I have got older, the sharp line that divided the credible from the incredible has tended to blur; I am aware that the whole world is slightly incredible"
— Colin Wilson

"'In real life I do violence, but for psychic stuff I do other things better.'"
— Laurell K. Hamilton (Skin Trade)

"Let us depart instead for the fields of Dreams and wander those blue, romantic hills where stands the abandoned tower of the Supernatural, where cool mosses clothe the ruins of Idealism. Let us, in short, indulge in a little fantasy!"
— Eça de Queirós (The Mandarin and Other Stories by Eca De Queiroz)

"'How did you hear about that?'
'Are you kidding me? So far, I had that runt Kyle-'
'I hate him. I hate all vamps. That complete toad, Michael-'
'-tell me you were pregnant by a vamp-'
'kidnnaped me and-Kyle said WHAT?'
'and then a member of the Domi shows up and informs me-'
'The Domi sent someone HERE?'
'-that you're actually pregnant by the late king of the Fey.'
'Late?!' Heidar squeaked."
— Karen Chance (Midnight's Daughter)

"Demons are like obedient dogs; they come when they are called."
— Remy de Gourmont

"Why should not a writer be permitted to make use of the levers of fear, terror and horror because some feeble soul here and there finds it more than it can bear? Shall there be no strong meat at table because there happen to be some guests there whose stomachs are weak, or who have spoiled their own digestions?"
— E.T.A. Hoffmann

"The charm of horror only tempts the strong"
— Jean Lorrain

"'It's about time! It's supposed to be a ritual, not a marathon.'"
— Karen Chance (Claimed By Shadow)

"We ask only to be reassured
About the noises in the cellar
And the window that should not have been open"
— T.S. Eliot (The Family Reunion)

"A serious adult story must be true to something in life. Since marvel tales cannot be true to the events of life, they must shift their emphasis towards something to which they can be true; namely, certain wistful or restless moods of the human spirit, wherein it seeks to weave gossamer ladders of escape from the galling tyranny of time, space, and natural law."
— H.P. Lovecraft

"I remember the whole beginning as a succession of flights and drops, a little see-saw of the right throbs and the wrong."
— Henry James (The Turn of the Screw)

"Broad daylight does not encourage the apprehension of horror."
— Guy de Maupassant

"Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always enjoyed feeling afraid. I think it is the most delicious feeling there is"
— Domingos Monteiro

"The dark dangerous forest is still there, my friends. Beyond the space of the astronauts and the astronomers, beyond the dark, tangled regions of Freudian and Jungian psychiatry, beyond the dubious psi-realms of Dr. Rhine, beyond the areas policed by the commissars and priests and motivations-research men, far, far beyond the mad, beat, half-hysterical laughter... the utterly unknown still is and the eerie and ghostly lurk, as much wrapped in mystery as ever."
— Fritz Leiber

"That settles it, no more books about vampire before bedtime."
— Amanda Ashley

"Even the most impassioned devotee of the ghost story would admit that the taste for it is slightly abnormal, a survival, perhaps, from adolescence, a disease of deficiency suffered by those whose lives and imaginations do not react satisfactorily to normal experience and require an extra thrill"
— L.P. Hartley

"Darnell had received what is called a sound commercial education, and would therefore have found very great difficulty in putting into articulate speech any thought that was worth thinking;"
— Arther Machen

"But if what interests you are stories of the fantastic, I must warn you that this kind of story demands more art and judgment than is ordinarily imagined."
— Charles Nodier

"But if what interests you are stories of the fantastic, I must warn you that this kind of story demands more art and judgment than is ordinarily imagined.
"
— Charles Nodier