“Where's he getting the bricks? Packard asks. "That's what I don't understand. He brought his own bricks?”

“Packard wrestles off his jacket and shirt. He ignores me, leaning far over to the side, reaching down into the rocks. He comes back with a handful of slime, which he swipes across his chest, smearing it over the solid planes of his muscles. “What the hell are you doing?”“Interfering with his concentration. Vulnerability and a lack of logic will disturb him. And the bricks exert a pull…”“Hold up!” he calls out. “I have to tell you something! Midcity is purchasing the Great Wall of China!” What? Has he gone insane? “Midcity is importing the wall, brick by brick, right now!”He strides, totally unprotected, toward where the Brick Slinger hides. “They’re bringing it here on a boat, in its raw brick form, to be deposited in the Maverick’s stadium!”

“He had built his own future brick by brick around himself but there were no doors or windows, at least that was the way it seemed at the time he had thought to himself, I am locked in, it was like one of those ghost stories where you wake up and you are sealed in a coffin.”

“People ask what's up with this writing business? What do I hope to accomplish? I tell 'em I'm just a brick mason; words are my bricks and I'm building a skyscraper -- one brick at a time.”

“A brick should decide who gets to rule the people, and I should decide what rules determine whom the brick favors.”

“A brick could be used in a manner most secret. But Shh! I can't tell you. What part about secret don't you understand?
”