“Adam said the other blessing you have to give up in the outside world is darkness.”

“The hardest blessing you give up is silence.”

“Secret to what?""Secret to shutting you up," he said. "I just have to beat you till you're half-dead, then give you chicken soup and"--he raised his hands--"blessed silence.”

“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”

“It's like you said the other day," said Adam. "You grow up readin' about pirates and cowboys and spacemen and stuff, and jus' when you think the world's full of amazin' things, they tell you it's really all dead whales and chopped-down forests and nucular waste hangin' about for millions of years. 'Snot worth growin' up for, if you ask my opinion.”

“Saw him where?""While I was sitting outside with one of my half aunts."This seemed to satisfy Ronan was well, because he asked, "What's the other half of her?""God, Ronan," Adam said. "Enough.”