“Extinction, the irrevocable loss of a species, causes pain that can never find relief. It is an ache that will pass from generation to generation for the rest of human history.”

“The naïve girl in me had been bitch-slapped into womanhood. I’d been razed by pain, grief, loss and suffering, and honed by lust, rage and an acute awareness of my need to survive.”

“It was amazing, really, just how much pain the human heart could hold.”

“i get what i want cause i can be a stubborn bitch when i need to”

“Buddhism: a violent religion that has compensated for the exploding human population by causing whole species of animal vessels to go extinct.”

“In my South, the most treasured things passed down from generation to generation are the family recipes.”

“Do you know where the past and the present intersect?" Jac asked him."Where?""In your mind, only. It's the only point. Otherwise, the past is further away than the furthest galaxy. We know it, intuitively, because we understand the irrevocability of past action, and sometimes that makes us sad." He looked into Gordius's face, trying to read his expression, but the fellow wouldn't make eye-contact with him. "But it ought not to make us sad. Another name for that irrevocable gap between past and present is -- freedom.”