“...and all they could do was sit, sleep, eat, and be reminded day after day, night after night, of their disease and eventual death.”

“By now the streets of Kalaupapa were filled with people racing for high ground - sick people crying"Tsunami!" as nature played yet another mean trick on them, God's last best joke at their expense. It was,after all, April Fool's Day.”

“What's it like? Being married?Cold feet. Middle of the night you're sleeping, suddenly, wham, you've got ice cold feet warming themselves on the back of your legs.”

“After a while the fear became a constant, cold companion, a simple fact of existence.”

“But it's a poor church that cares only for what happens to a soul after it leaves this life."-Damien”

“How stupid could she be to think a clean person would love her -- would risk death and decay and banishment for love!”

“None of the patients could say the experiments didn't yield some benefits. It was the way the experiments were conducted that grated: with cold, clinical detachment. Masks, gloves, and carbolic acid were the order of the day fora ll staff, and while this may have been prudent it only made isolated people feel even more isolated.”