“Ezekiel and his fellow prophets have become my heroes. They were fearless. They literalized metaphors. They turned their lives into protest pieces. They proved that, in the name of truth, sometimes you can't be afraid to take a left turn from polite society and look absurd.”

“Husband, we talked about this," Persephone chided. "You can't go around incinerating every hero. Besides, he's brave. I like that."Hades rolled his eyes. "You liked that Orpheus fellow too. Look how well that turned out.”

“Truth has to be given in riddles. People can't take truth if it comes charging at them like a bull. The bull is always killed. You have to give people the truth in a riddle, hide it so they go looking for it and find it piece by piece; that way they learn to live with it.”

“The absurd hero's refusal to hope becomes his singular ability to live in the present with passion.”

“There are a lot of bad things out there. Things the Hounds of Heaven werecreated to destroy." He trailed his finger down the side of my face. "I can't be the hero you wantme to be--at least not in that way. But you can, Grace. You don't have to become one of the darkones. You can fight it. You can turn this curse into a blessing. You can become the hero. Youcan become truly divine.”

“back turned, you don't have to look at what you've left behind. And the first person who turned their back on you can't watch you break down and cry.”