“Fear was the biggest bullshitter, he’d said. But sometimes, too, fear told the truth.”

“Look right at it. Know you can." Dad said. "Look right at that fear. Fear is the biggest bullshitter.”

“Sometimes good choices are really bad ones, wrapped up in so much fear you can't even see straight.”

“We're as good at talking ourselves out of fear as into it, aren't we? Maybe better.”

“He's alright. He's fine," Dad says, his usual line whenever Oliver gets hurt. It means: Go away. Don't baby him. Don't show too much compassion. The other dads do this too. It's some kind of group hysteria, based on some fatherly fear that says compassion equals homosexuality.”

“It's hard to see clearly when your eyes are squinched tight out of fear.”

“They say religion is about love, but you wonder how much of it really is about fear.”