This place was just a pile of old stones. Pretty stones…

“The Nazis had been one thing. The communists were another. But now there were academics crawling all over the palace.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Prayer. That was what people did when there was nothing else left to do.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Isn’t it funny that only twenty years ago, they were down there cowering in terror that we trigger-happy, decadent, capitalist Americans would go nuclear…

— Magnus Flyte

“You cannot hear the birds for all the gossip.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Indeed, a convent was a kind of early think tank for women, since it was the preferred choice of intellectuals wanting to escape marriage.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Love makes people so stupid.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Prague is a threshold.” “A threshold?” “Yes. Between the life of good and … the other.” Sarah thought of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “I’m…

— Magnus Flyte

“She hadn’t really counted on having to measure pedagogic dick length with a whole tribe.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Men were ridiculous, in all cultures and across time.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Rules of science.” Alessandro shrugged his elegant shoulders. “And what are those? We don’t even know how this works.” He pointed to his head.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Mark Twain said that, outside of Vienna, all coffee was merely liquid poverty," Sarah commented.”

— Magnus Flyte

“At Harvard, you could tell if a girl would sleep with you by her poster. Modigliani--si. Klimt--no.”

— Magnus Flyte

“It wasn't enough to be alive. Everyone needed something to live for. Or die for.”

— Magnus Flyte

“Sarah felt about great sex the way St. George felt about slaying dragons...”

— Magnus Flyte

“... reminding her that life was short, and that soon she, too, would be one of the wraiths floating around the castle. But only…

— Magnus Flyte