I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. – Plutarch

Often the magical elements in my books are standing in for elements of the real world, the small and magical-in-their-own-right sorts of things that we take for granted and no longer pay attention to, like the bonds of friendship that entwine our own lives with those of other people and places. – Charles de Lint

Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other. – Honore de Balzac