"But first things first. First, to escape this shell, this egg in which I have gestated, all eyes will be on the fire, all eyes blinded by the smoke, and when I walk out of here, out into your large world with its billions, no one will even see. It's the beauty of light, don't you see, Sam? It reveals, but it also distracts and blinds. It's even better than darkness."

"So asking you to take a moonlit walk with me, that would totally not work?""What?" Again that glare. "Go away. Stop being an idiot. I don't even know you.""You're healing my little brother Bowie.""Yeah, that doesn't make us friends, kid.""So no moonlight.""Are you retarded?""Sunrise? I could get up early.""Go away.""Sunset tomorrow?" -Sanjit & Lana."

"A man without pleasure is a man without any idea what life is about."

"Don't want no more rock, Orc repeated.The bleeding stopped almost immediately."Does it hurt? Lana asked. "I mean the rock. I know the hole hurts."No. It don't hurt. Orc slammed his fist against his opposite arm, hard enough that any human arm would have been shattered. "I barely feel it. Even Drake's whip, when we was fighting, I barely felt it.Suddenly he was weeping. Tears rolled from human eyes onto cheeks of flesh and pebbles."I don't feel nothing except, He pointed a thick stone finger at the flesh of his face."Yeah, Lana said. Her irritation was gone. Her burden was smaller, maybe, than Orc's."

"Come live with us, Diana. Don't argue. Just say yes."Diana looked at the ground to hide her emotions. Then she said, "Would I have to be hearing you two going at it night and day?"

"And then the turbines generate electricity that goes into the whole town.""You mean they aren't powered by giant hamsters on wheels? I was misinformed."

"Lana's going through them one at a time. Healing them. She's amazing."Sam thought he heard something extra in Edilio's voice. "She's cute too, huh Edilio?"Edilio's eyes went wide and started blushing. "She's just...you know..."Sam slapped his shoulder. "Good luck with that.""You think she...I mean, you know me, I'm just..." Edilio stammered his way to a stop."Dude, let's see if we can stay alive. Then you can ask her out or whatever."

"I had a polynomial once. My doctor removed it."

"The fool says 'I never intended to kill. I meant only to wound.' But I tell you that if you prick a finger with a poisoned thorn you may not claim innocence when the heart dies. Do not plant a weed and pretend surprise when it grows to strangle your garden. For, I tell you that hate is to kill, for from hatred grows death as surely as life grows from love. Therefore do not nurture hatred, but love, even for those who hate you in return. Hatred wins many battles, and yet love will triumph."

"I am too perfect for Evening," Adam volunteers. "But that's all right." He smiles shyly at Aislin. "I am not too perfect for Aislin."

"If there was ever an example for redemption, it's you."

"The light of day showed you the limits of possibility. But walk through the dark, the absolute, total darkness, and the possibilities were limitless."

"Penny rolled over, got to her feet, trying to get control of her scattered mind, but Quinn was behind her now and had his powerful arm around her neck."I will snap your neck, Penny. I swear to God, I will snap your neck. Nothing you can do will stop me.Penny went limp. "You think the king will let you get away with this, Quinn? she hissed."Anyone messes with me, Penny, you or anyone else, and I go on strike. See how well you enjoy life without me and my crews. Without food."

"Too bad we don't have marshmallows. This is an amazing fire." Howard emerged through the smoke behind Edilio."

"God knew our lives would be really bad sometimes. Like maybe we'd be turned into a monster and then our best friend would get killed. So he made up this story about hell, so we could always say, 'Well it could be worse. It could be hell.' And then we'd keep going."

"No, no, no, so not getting the point of fear. Because fear wasn't about what made sense. Fear was about possibilities. Not things that happened. Things that might."

"No you sick, stupid creep, I love you. I shouldn't. I shouldn't. You're sick inside, Caine, sick! But I love you. - Diana."

"It's not about the powers, man; it's that we aren't kids anymore. Look what we've been through. Look what we've done. Look at yourself, surfer dude. We've done something none of our parents have even come close to. We didn't take over their boring world; we took over a world about a thousand times tougher. If we walk out of this alive, we won't have to bow our heads to anyone."

"Sam and Caine were left standing side by side, bruised and battered, to stare over Penny's sickening corpse, at the face of their mother."

"How am I supposed to feed you? Drake demanded."Darkness say to coyote: don't kill human. Did not say don't eat dead human.Drake laughed with a certain delight. This Pack Leader was definitely a smarter animal than the original one."

"Say it. But...""But what?" he asked.She whispered it, sounding too vulnerable. "But only if its the truth, Caine. Only. If.""I love you," he said."

"I believe in free will. I think we make our own decisions and carry out or own actions. And our actions have consequences. The world is what we make it. But I think sometimes we can ask God to help us and He will."

"One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone. There. Gone. No 'poof.' No flash of light. No explosion."

"We're fighting for unhappiness?" Noah asked skeptically. "It sounds a bit crazy when you put it that way."Nijinsky laughed, delighted. "Oh, it is." Then, serious again, he said, "We fight for the right to be what we choose,to feel what we choose. Even if what we choose seems crazy to others.""If it's all the same to you, I'll fight for revenge," Sadie said.Nijinsky's eyes glittered. "Oh, yes. That's fine with me."

"At night we cry sometimes, and if you think that just applies to the females then you have never been in combat, because everyone cries sooner or later. Everyone cries."

"Which was how Britteny ended up nestled next to Mickey, under the shelter of a painter's drop cloth.She felt no pain.She saw no light.She heard, but barely.Her heart was still and silent.Yet she did not die."

"Caine tried to roll to his feet, but something was jabbing him in the crouch. He shook off the stars and saw Edilio standing over him. Edilio had the business end of his automatic rifle in a very sensitive place. "If you move, Caine, I will shoot your balls off," Edilio said. "Toto?" "He will," Toto said, "Although he's not sure it will be just your balls."

"You sound like a college freshman taking his first philosophy class way too seriously, but that's good."

"And he thought of the two people who had held his job before him: Sam and Astrid. Both beaten into despair by trying to hold this group of kids together in the face of one disaster after another. Both of them now happy to let Edilio handle it."No wonder, Edilio muttered."Stay inside unless absolutely necessary, Edilio shouted, and not for the first or last time wished he was still just Sam's faithful sidekick."

"Fear was about possibilities. Not things that happened. Things that might."

"Caine erupted in disbelieving laughter. "Yeah, that'll do it. 'I'm just a kid, Your Honor!' Hah. They'll have to find a few scapegoats, and guess who it will be? You and me, surfer boy. You and me."

"There's a lot youdon't know, Sam. There's a lot I don't tell you. I know who I am. I know what I do, and what I am to this place.I know what I am to you, and how much you depend on me.You may be the symbol, and you may be the one everyone turns to when something goes bad, and you're the big badass, but I'm the guy doing the day-in, day-out work of running things. So I don't make this about me."

"The folks who hate the idea of women soldiers tell one set of lies, the people who like the notion of women at war tell a different set of lies. If you believe the one side, we're nothing but a drag on the men, and the other side acts like we won the war all by ourselves. We could probably get a pretty good debate going here on the women's war over the question of which se of lies we hate more-the one denies what we've done; the other belittles what our brother have done."

"We take the names of madmen, because madness is our fate. Terribly melodramatic, that."

"Man, don't ever be sorry you don't want to kill someone."

"We do need a system, and we do need you and your 'Bertos, and sometimes we need Sam to just come along and kick some ass. - Quinn."

"But when reality was hopeless, fantasy became more and more necessary."

"An old couple came running from a motorhome, scribbling as they ran. Their sign read, Can you check on our cat, Ariel?No one would answer that, because the cats had all been eaten."

"Deep down, she's a good person, Diana is," Caine said, and sighed. "Deep down, I'm not. But she is."

"We were girls, you see, not even women, just girls, most of us when we started. And the boys were just boys, not men, most of them. We'd only begun to live life, we knew little and understood less. We were unformed, incomplete. It's funny how easy it is to see that now. If you'd called me a child three years ago when this started I'd have been furious. But looking back? We were children just getting ready to figure out what adulthood was all about."

"Promise me, Sam: whatever it takes to win, whatever it takes to survive."Astrid-Suddenly she grabbed his face with one hand and squeezed too hard. "You listen to me. I'm not losing you because you played fair. You're not getting killed. You're not dying. This isn't some doomed last mission. Do you understand me? This does not end with me crying and missing you every day for the rest of my life. This ends with us walking out of this nightmare together. You and me, Sam."

"The feature that makes people look at her twice, sometimes with suspicious glances, is her eyes. They are too large, wide-set, slanted a bit. And they judge, those eyes do, they watch and they take note and they judge all that they see, and lots of folks do not like that much.To the innocent, her eyes are arresting. To a person with something on his conscience, they seem too knowing."

"Yeah. A feeling. Like the whole point of my life from the alleys in Bangkok to the yachts and private island to coming here like a crazy person trying to fly a helicopter like all of it from birth to here point A to point Z was all some big cosmic trick to get me to meet you. - Sanjit to Lana."

"Its the fate of all creators: They fall in love with their creations."

"The coolly logical part of her brain noted almost sardonically that Edilio had a superpower after all: being Edilio."

"And yes, we do have some food. Maybe you'd like to join us? Unless you want to stick with your sheep sushi."

"People are idiots, Choo. Always remmber that: people are faithless, backstabbing, weak, creepy, stupid, lazy idiots."

"Quinn came forward and Sam pulled him aside. His old friend looked tortured and sad."What's up, brah? Sam asked.Quinn couldn't speak. He was choked with emotion. "Dude . . ."You want to stay in town."My crews . . . my boats and all . . .Sam put a hand on his shoulder. "Quinn, I'm glad you found something so important to do. Something you really like."Yeah, but . . .Sam pulled him into a brief hug. "You and me, we're still friends, man. But you have responsibilities."

"Let them go, Caine, Diana pleaded."Why, Diana? Why do you betray me?"Betray you? Diana laughed. "Betray you? I've been with you every day, every hour, from the start of this nightmare!Caine looked at her. "But you hate me, anyway."No, you sick, stupid creep, I love you. I shouldn't. I shouldn't. You're sick inside, Caine, sick! But I love you."

"Edilio is in hiding, Astrid snapped. "Edilio has to worry about being kicked out of the country. Our Edilio."He's got a volunteer lawyer-But Astrid wasn't done. "They should be putting up statues to Edilio. They should be naming schools after that boy-no, no, I'm not going to call him a boy. If he's not a man, then I'll never meet one.Lana nodded approvingly, obviously enjoying and sharing in Astrid's outrage."