“Leaves turned to soil beneath my feet. Thus it is, trees eat themselves.”

“The first of ‘Goose’s Two Laws of Survival.’ It runs thus, ‘The weak are meat the strong do eat.’ ” ... Henry grinned in the dark & cleared his throat. “The second law of survival states that there is no second law. Eat or be eaten. That’s it.”

“Yet for the first time in three days, I want something. I want the forest lord to turn me into a cedar. The very oldest islanders say that if you are in the interior mountains on the night when the forest lord counts his trees, he includes you in the number and turns you into a tree.”

“if you go up there Old Georgie'll freeze you an' dig out your soul with a cruel'n'crookit spoony an' eat it so you'll never even be reborned an' your body'll be turned into a frostbited boulder.”

“Hate eats the hater the way ogres eat little boys.”

“The weak are meat the strong do eat.”

“How could I know a famished heart will eat its mind? Can kill its body?”