“Words have a force far beyond that of ink stains on pages or spoken sounds... Whether written or spoken, language found in forbidden books can warp space-time and tear the fabric of reality.”

“This is what is meant by last words: they are keys to unlock the afterlife. They're not last words but passwords, and as soon as they're spoken you can go.”

“Help me,' Allison says, but she is soft-spoken, and everyone she loves is so far away.”

“The feeling of cold grayness was everywhere around me-a sense of resignation. There had been no talk of rehabilitation, of cure, of someday sending these people out into the world again. No one had spoken of hope. The feeling was of living death-or worse, of never having been fully alive and knowing. Souls withered from the beginning, and doomed to stare into the time and space of every day.”

“When I am old, I hope to remember sadness unequivocally.”

“Who taught us to bow our headswhile waiting for trains? to touchlumber without regret and sing privatelyor not at all? To invest the seasonwith forgiveness and coax from ita hopeful omen? Lord knowsthe hope would heal this little fear.But who taught us to fear?”

“The written word endures, the spoken word disappears”