“You could rub a dry turd with a whole can of linseed oil, after all, and all you'd end up with was mess of shiny shit.”

“I don't reckon misery loves any damn thing at all.”

“She had a knack for numbers and negotiation, and once, when Karel had asked when she planned to settle down, Elizka Novotny had pulled a wisp of curls from the corner of her wet mouth and said, "I am settled. I didn't grow daddy's business just to marry some dirt farmer who expects me to hand over the reins so he can make a wreck of it.”

“The townsfolk would assume, from this day forward, that Klara's death had turned a gentle man bitter and hard, but the truth, Vaclav knew, was that her absence only rendered him, again, the man he'd been before he'd met her, one only her proximity had ever softened”

“All these years of thinking, ending up like this: In front of all this beauty, understanding nothing.”

“All these guys picking on smart kids and calling them geeks and dweebs are going to grow up and want to know why they don't do something about the terrible state the world is in. I can tell you why. By the time they grow up, most of the kids who realy could have changed things are wrecked. ”

“Do I at least get to keep the toothbrush?”“Sure. Unless you can get it back in that wrapper and seal it up all nice and new. Well, that’s what the last girl did. See,you can hardly tell it’s been opened!”--Reggie Sinclair from Angela's Coven”