“Hi," she said, in a whispery voice, and nodded as if to confirm that she really meant it.”

“She was beautiful; my breath was taken; we were still lonely; she said yes.”

“The liar looks up toward it, hoping against hope that the voices in his head have told him the truth. ”

“We stood there, squeezing each other's hands as though trying to press through the flesh to the bones and then beyond. She kissed my cheek and neck, and I felt the joy of omnipresent love -- everything around me speaking about me with affection, and Mary was listening.”

“She could slip out of her shoes and leave them right here, stuck in the muck, and then get rid of her dress and everything else: her mind, her life, her pain. The abandon of having nothing to lose, the freedom of being divested of all earthly burdens, ready for the Messiah, or death. Everything is attracted by its end.”

“And did the biblical Lazarus have a mother? What did she do when he was resurrected? Did he bid her good-bye before he returned to his undeath? Was he the same son to her undead as he was alive? I read that he sailed to Marseilles with his sisters afterward, where he may or may not have died again.”

“The end of the world might be near, Isador said to her once, but we don't have to rush to reach it.”