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Biscuit sighed and lifted from the mantle the glass box with Grandpa Coldharp’s oracular penny in it. It was an Indian head penny, minted in 1909, and when the box was shaken the penny bounced around inside but always came up heads; the family tradition was that you could ask it any question, as long as the answer was yes.

— Tim Powers Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers (2017)

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More quotes by Tim Powers

The wages of courage is death, lad, but it’s the wages of everything else, too.

The Drawing of the Dark (1979)

Some people, he thought, simply have no will to survive—they’re walking hors d’oeuvres waiting for someone who can spare the time to devour them.

Dinner at Deviant's Palace (1985)

“Maybe later,” he told her. “Time yet for a hundred indecisions.”

Alternate Routes (2018)

Processions of priests and religiosi have been for several days past praying for rain; but the gods are either angry, or nature is too powerful.

The Stress of Her Regard (1989)

Every ruler wants to maintain the status quo.

The Stress of Her Regard (1989)

All Tim Powers quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tim Powers (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.