“Well, I thought, climbing slowly out of the slit trench, the shells will catch us above ground now. But if you have to go, you have to go. F Company’s in trouble, and we have to help them. We’re in reserve, so we have to go. And if we’re shelled, we’re shelled. There is absolutely nothing we can do about it.”

“We know we only have so much energy for reaching out; if we’re going to invest, we want it to be good.”

“Extinction, that’s where it’s going, that’s where we’re headed. And we’re going that way because we’re all so fucking afraid of it. We’re so afraid of dying off that we’re setting ourselves up for exactly that. Keeping away from each other, rarely making eye contact with those we don’t already know. Not helping when folks need help. Avoiding confrontation and staying away when we see anything which might instill fear. Doing our best to stay out of trouble, while in effect creating more trouble.”

“I wonder where we go when we die?”“…Pittsburgh?”“You mean if we’re good or if we’re bad?”

“You didn’t get a choice in what happened to you. Neither didwe. But you have a choice in what happens now. We don’t. You’re the one in control and all we can do is sit on the sidelines and watch, even if youkeep making the wrong calls over and over again.” We’re obviously veering into sports metaphor territory. “We’re not going to force you to doanything you aren’t ready to do. You’ve had enough forced on you. But you have to make a decision about how long you’re going to let this defineyour life.”

“This isn’t a thrift store… We’re not selling them something less expensive, we’re selling them something more special. We have to tell them the story of what we’re showing them. And then we have to show them how they can be the new heroine in the story.”