"Will you shut up? I haven't written a word in a year—nothing I haven't thrown away! Do you know what that's like? When it's just you, and a blank sheet of paper?" —Richard Madoc, "Calliope," page 14

"She's not even human, he told himself. She's thousands of years old. But her flesh was warm, and her breath was sweet, and she choked back tears like a child whenever he hurt her." —"Calliope," page 18

"She has been held captive for more than sixty years. Stripped of all possessions. Demeaned, abused, and hurt. I...know how she must feel. And you will not free her because 'you need the ideas?' You disgust me, Richard Madoc. You want ideas? You want dreams? You want stories? Then ideas you will have. Ideas in abundance." —The Sandman, "Calliope," page 27

"I...I want to understand. Why could they take...