“You ever get the feeling all hell’s about to break loose and there’s nothing you can do about it?”

“You ever want to feel powerless? Watch the people you care about being hurt and know there is nothing you can do about it.”

“How can you tell a man there’s nothing to do? I can’t imagine a situation in which there could ever be nothing to do! Do it for mankind and don’t worry about the rest. There’s so much to do that a lifetime won’t be enough, if you look around attentively.”

“You know, sometimes there’s absolutely nothing you can say about what you’ve been through, nothing. The whole trip is mind boggling. All you can do is shake your head and smile.”

“You mustn’t blame yourself for the way the boy’s turned out, Vernon. If there’s something rotten on the inside, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

“You see the mistakes of one system—the surveillance—and the mistakes of the other—the inequality—but there’s nothing you could have done in the one and nothing you can do now about the other. She laughs wryly. “And the clearer you see that, the worse you feel.”