Top 35 Mike Carey Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves.”

— Mike Carey

2. “Michael: There’s nothing here to fear. Lucifer: Well, there’s always the truth.”

— Mike Carey

3. “No, there are no special places in hell. Hell is a democracy.”

— Mike Carey

4. “All stories are lies. But good stories are lies made from light and fire. And they lift our hearts out of the dust, and out of the grave.”

— Mike Carey

5. “Nothing is immune to Time. Not even eternity.”

— Mike Carey

6. “Be yourself, until you bleed.”

— Mike Carey

7. “Fortune favors the pure of heart and the brassy of bollock.”

— Mike Carey

8. “When a book is read an irrevocable thing happens – a murder, followed by an imposture. The story in the mind murders the story on the page, and takes its place.”

— Mike Carey

9. “The world seems to work in predictable ways, and you think you see the pattern. But that’s fatal. Because it’s only a pattern until you meet the first event that doesn’t fit. And by then it’s too late. By then, all the tricks you’ve learned to deal with the world – well, they just don’t work anymore.”

— Mike Carey

10. “I will withhold death from you as long as you obey my one command. Bow down to no one. Worship no one. Not even me. Do you understand?”

— Mike Carey

11. “If I had a box full of all the evils of the world, I’d open it just a little way and push you inside. Then I’d close it again for always.”

— Mike Carey

12. “Those heart-hammering nightmares that start to lose coherence even as you’re waking up from them, but that still manage to leave their moldering fingerprints all across your day.”

— Mike Carey

13. “I have stared into the light and you are all my shadows.”

— Mike Carey

14. “The world is a book. Some words stand out from the page.”

— Mike Carey

15. “It wasn’t what I was expecting, but like I’ve always said: if life gives you lemmings, jump off a cliff.”

— Mike Carey

16. “I think Louisville will be fired up for this game. They might be in revenge mode. But, this time of the year records, don’t mean much. Anything can happen.”

— Mike Carey

17. “I’m not going to heal. Not if healing means shrugging your shoulders and saying ‘Life goes on’. Life doesn’t go on.”

— Mike Carey

18. “Grudging praise is the most flattering of all.”

— Mike Carey

19. “I know that if a team had a derogatory name for African Americans, I would help those who helped extinguish that name. I have quite a few friends who are Native Americans. And even if I didn’t have Native American friends, the name of the team is disrespectful.”

— Mike Carey

20. “An excellent indie horror book with a wholly original premise.”

— Mike Carey

21. “The right idea at the right time is like a dandelion... You may hack it down, but you only spread the seeds abroad.”

— Mike Carey

22. “Beliefs are collars to which leashes can be attached.”

— Mike Carey

23. “At least the smoke would give me a little cover; it was also choking me, making my eyes water and my lungs ache and spasm with each breath, but you can’t have everything.”

— Mike Carey

24. “Nothing matters more than the stories we tell ourselves to explain the world.”

— Mike Carey

25. “It does no good to run. And it does no good to hide. But I know what it’s like. Your brain shuts down, and you follow your instincts. Or, at least, you.”

— Mike Carey

26. “Even at its worst, there are tiny holes in the midnight canopy of my bad luck.”

— Mike Carey

27. “Happy Families. What’s that all about, eh? A bloody busted flush is what it is. You surround yourself with other people so the night doesn’t seem quite so dark. Shout down the sound of the wind with arguments about whose turn it is to wash the dishes. Best not to kid yourself. Best not to give any hostages to fortune. You’re on your own in the end. Always. Where else would you want to be?”

— Mike Carey

28. “Words are the birds that break cover and show your enemy where you’re hiding.”

— Mike Carey

29. “I took a strong dislike to him right then to save time and effort later.”

— Mike Carey

30. “You move on. You move back. On because you’re always getting older, back because there’s always a set of habits and routines to catch you and suck you back in when your guard is down.”

— Mike Carey

31. “Fear is a serviceable tool, I suppose. Like the stalls in a battery farm. If you want to keep people from their collective strength, make them too afraid of each other to ever meet or talk.”

— Mike Carey

32. “It’s not a holiday until you overdo it!”

— Mike Carey

33. “You’re a vampire, Richie. And I’ve got a gun the size of Nebraska. What’s the worst that could happen?”

— Mike Carey

34. “Human beings take social stances, and if you’re respectful of all human beings, you have to decide what you’re going to do and why you’re going to do it.”

— Mike Carey

35. “Men, women, children – all have souls. Tables. Rocks. Wheels. Cups. All likewise have souls. Spirit lives in matter. All matter. Where else would it live?”

— Mike Carey

36. “Dragons were a problem sometimes, but they only came on Tuesdays, so you could work around them.”

— Mike Carey