“The potential, for anything, was overwhelming to a degree that bothered him. It wasn’t, he thought, the idea of power. It certainly wasn’t that nervous feeling T.C. would get in the pit of his stomach when he knew he had an incredible opportunity in front of him, that amazing brief pause before an act of creation. This was something else. Something to fear and respect.”

“He didn't want to get his hopes up, but he also refused to be a pessimist about this moment. Everything could go either way.”

“Saying something is far too simple is a doubter's way or trying to make the world more complex so he won't have answers.”

“A single thought, he considered, could do all sorts of harm. Harm to what, he wasn't sure, but he identified it as harm.”

“He wasn't anti-gun really—he just wasn't pro-being-shot-at.”

“He felt like his own heart might stop beating just from acknowledging the concept. The sadness, the sorrow, and the loss, they were living things, funnily enough.”

“Sometimes life just did things, he felt, and they didn't have to make sense. It helped when they did, and often the sense of a thing was just around a corner, but that didn't mean you ever got to see it.”