After years of having a dog, you know him. You know the meaning of his snuffs and grunts and barks. Every twitch of the ears is a question or statement, every wag of the tail is an exclamation.

— Robert McCammon

But I think parents aren't teachers anymore. Parents -- or a lot of us, at least -- lead by mouth instead of by example. It seems to me that if a child's hero is their mother or father -- or even better, both of them in tandem -- then the rough road of learning and experience is going to be smoothed some. And every little bit of smoothing helps, in this rough old world that wants children to be miniature adults, devoid of charm and magic and the beauty of innocence.

— Robert McCammon

Grigsby had looked at him askance. “Why is it,” he said, “that I have the distinct impression you’re not surprised by this news?” ‘Surprised by the fact that the reverend is first and foremost a human being? Surprised by the fact that every human being, reverend or ribald, can be undone by capricious circumstances? Or should I be surprised by the fact that a man who teaches love and forgiveness can love and forgive? Tell me, Army, exactly what it is I should be surprised at?

— Robert McCammon

Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, The lady of situations. Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.

— Robert McCammon

Many times you will fail. That is the nature of the world, and the truth of life. But when you find your horse again, will go back, or will you go forward?

— Robert McCammon

Once upon a time, man had a love affair with fire.

— Robert McCammon

See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churches out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in themselves.

— Robert McCammon

... some wounds refuse the remedy of time.

— Robert McCammon

...that in this town prostitutes may give sewing lessons to ladies of the church, pirates may be consulted for their opinions on seaworthy by shipbuilders, Christians and Jews may stroll together on a Sunday, and Indians my play dice games with leather stockings, but let one silver piece fall in a crack between two members of the same profession, and it's bloody war.

— Robert McCammon

They say that somewhere in Africa the elephants have a secret grave where they go to lie down, unburden their wrinkled gray bodies, and soar away, light spirits at the end.

— Robert McCammon