Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?

— Garth Nix

Even now, she wished she could write a note, push it across the table, and go away to her room. But she was no longer a Second Assistant Librarian of the Great Library of the Clay. Those days were gone, vanished with everything else that had defined her previous existence and identity.

— Garth Nix

Fear and realization of ignorance, strong medicines against stupid pride.

— Garth Nix

For all my longer works (i.e. the novels) I write chapter outlines, so I can have the pleasure of departing from them later on.

— Garth Nix

I am not going to change who I am. I am human, and I know how to love, and be kind, and be compassionate to those who are weaker than I. Just because I have power doesn't mean I have to use it!

— Garth Nix

I can see time," whispered Forget, so softly that his words were lost.

— Garth Nix

If an action must be taken that will benefit the majority at the cost of the minority, is it morally indefensible? If an action taken for the benefit of a majority occurs at the expense of a minority, is it moral action?

— Garth Nix

I have walked in Death to the very precipice of the Ninth Gate," Abhor sen said quietly. "I know the secrets and horrors of the Nine Precincts. I do not know what lies beyond, but everything that lives must go there, in the proper time. That is the rule that governs our work as the Abhor sen, but it also governs us. You are the fifty-third Abhor sen, Gabriel. I have not taught you as well as I should—let this be my final lesson. Everyone and everything has a time to die.

— Garth Nix

I’m not going,” he said. He held up the Third key like a weapon. Sensing his mood, it grew longer and sharper, till he was holding a trident as long as he was tall... “And anyone who tries to make me is going to suffer.” “Twice,” added the voice under the table.

— Garth Nix

‎"It always seemed somehow less real here... a really detailed dream, but sort of washed out, like a thin watercolor. Softer, somehow, even with their electric light and engines and everything. I guess it was because there was hardly any magic.

— Garth Nix