Monkeys and mortals are attracted to sparkly things. What makes us different from the apes is that we sometimes crack the shiny shell and see there’s… - Esther Friesner

The shortest way to multiply damnations is to divide mortals. Fear’s a great one for that—fear the stranger, fear the different, fear the afflicted—long as you can keep your pigeons so damn scared there’s no room in them to even try to figure out whether there’s anything real to be scared of in the first place.

We are all doomed, condemned to have the flesh seared from our bones, our blood gouting from our headless necks as the dragon rends limb from limb!"
"Wait a minute," the first guard said. "How can the dragon rend us limb from limb, blood gouting and all, if it's already seared the flesh from our bones?"
Another Gorgorian guard gave him a smart thwack in the head and said, "It's a holy vision, you clod. Things don't need to make sense when they're holy visions.

Dignity and self-assurance are everything to a woman, especially a naked one.