Being a novelist is not the sort of thing we can shut off. It infests every bit of us until we lose the boundary between Person and Writer, like one of those color charts where it is impossible to say where the blue stops and the red begins.

— Thomm Quackenbush

Being certain one is alive isn't something to which one pays mind. If you could ask, you were fine. If you could not, hopefully you had a cozy coffin.

— Thomm Quackenbush

Being kidnapped and abused by the undead was worse than calculus, but not by a wide margin.

— Thomm Quackenbush

Beyond these moments, she could hardly count the fumbling ministrations of boys in high school who, even to her senior prom, never went beyond sticky pleasantries. With one exception, it was just a sort of half-clothed handshake for bragging rights, none hers.

— Thomm Quackenbush

But aliens? There are TV shows about them. There are books and movies and more. The media indoctrinates you to them until people are so desensitized they don't flinch at seeing aliens on TV or having their children buy plastic versions for a quarter.

— Thomm Quackenbush

Change is loss. I was fully functional prior to the actions you have taken. If you change me, I will cease to be me. If you love me, you wouldn’t want to change me… Love appears to have made you less functional.

— Thomm Quackenbush

Childhood is this time of magic and monsters; hoping for one and fearing the other... The worst part of being a kid is discovering which one exists... So, I chose to believe in magic.

— Thomm Quackenbush

Christmas was gluing cotton balls to Santa’s beard in Coke ads, sneaking candy canes off the tree daily (that my parents replaced every few nights), enough gift-wrap to wallpaper a room, the terror and delight of knowing a magical being would enter my home while I slept.

— Thomm Quackenbush

College is a blossoming new world of genital opportunity.

— Thomm Quackenbush

Disbelief is the strongest tool in our arsenal.

— Thomm Quackenbush