“In the world I lived in, the world of human people, there were ties and debts and consequences and good deeds. That was what bound people to society; maybe that was what constituted society. And I tried to live in my little niche in it the best way I could.”

“Life had sure been simpler when I hadn’t dated.”

“The full moon symbol on my calendar no longer seemed to be a period marking the end of something, but just another way of counting time.”

“Could I tell them I was sorry their loved one was dead, when he’d tried to kill me? There was no rule of etiquette for this; even my grandmother would have been stymied.”

“So you want me to go to a human orgy, where I will not be welcome, and you want us to leave before I get to enjoy myself? ~Eric Northman”

“We could go back to your house. I can stay with you always. We can know each others bodies in every way, night after night. I could love you. I could work, you would not be poor. I would help you.”

“Let go,” he advised me, and I loosened my grip on his hands. “No, not of me,” he said, smiling. “You can hold on to me as long as you want. Let go of the pain, Sookie. Let go. You need to drift away.”It was the first time I had relinquished my will to someone else. As I looked at him, it became easy, and I retreated from the suffering and uncertainty of this strange place.”

“By the way, I haven’t heard an ‘I’m sorry’ from you yet.” My sense of grievance had overwhelmed my sense of self-preservation.I am sorry that the maenad picked on you.”I glared at him. “Not enough,” I said. I was trying hard to hang on to this conversation.Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me.”That’s more like it.”

“A piece of happiness should never be taken as due.”

“Fiction just makes it all more interesting. Truth is so boring.”

“My bullshit meter is reading that as ‘false’.”

“Then was ashamed of myself. I should be happy for what I’d been given. I hoped God hadn’t noticed my lapse in appreciation.”

“And by golly, love sure was a battlefield. Benatar was right about that.”

“There’s no way you can kill someone and get to the other side of the experience unchanged.”

“The last time I wore an animal hide; but this time I settled for this.” Eric had been wearing a long trench coat. Now he threw it off dramatically, and I could only stand and stare. Normally, Eric was a blue-jeans-and-T-shirt kind of guy. Tonight, he wore a pink tank top and Lycra leggings[…]They were pink and aqua, like the swirls down the side of Jason’s truck.”