“From the town on the edge of obscurity with a post office and general store to the city with the mega malls and towering skyscrapers that scream of American Genericality, there is use for a dead cheerleader, a werewolf carrying business cards and a vampire fishing off a rickety pier.”

“That's the way it is with bullies, Grandma told me once. You give them an inch and they'll run you through with a knife.”

“There are moments in my life that stick to my memory. I suppose it's the same for everyone—snippets of life pasted in a scrapbook for you to look over every once in a while. You look back sometimes and relive an event, a smell or a sight. You catalog these things in your head and never really look at the whole. I think you miss something grand when you don't step back and examine everything together.”

“There was no longer a wellspring of tears or a firestorm of rage. The surge of feeling that enveloped Nathan James the last few weeks like a disastrous hurricane had now ebbed and dissipated, leaving only a dull numbness, a grey blanket of cold, emotional isolation. It was a good feeling to have when you wanted to exact revenge.”

“I've always believed there are moments in our lives which can be defined as a transition between the before and after, between the cause and the effect.”

“We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attacks on the twin towers and the pentagon and the American struggle in Iraq. These events swung American public opinion in our favor”

“No, I’m not an American. I’m one of 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the … victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver – no, not I! I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare!”