“Love is fragile and rare and cannot live long in open air.”

“You’re arguing that the fragile, rare thing is beautiful simply because it is fragile and rare. But that’s a lie, and you know it.”

“Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.”

“I was struck by an awful thought, the kind that cannot be taken back once it escapes into the open air of consciousness; it seemed to me that this was not a place you go to live. It was a place you go to die.”

“People rarely thank you for opening their eyes up to the lies they are comfortable living with”

“She is an animal. Servile as a dog. And yet if he is careful to make no demands, to leave the air between them open, another version of the windup girl emerges. As precious and rare as a living bo tree. Her soul, emerging from within the strangling strands of her engineered DNA.”