“It ain't really Czechoslovakian,' I said, coughing. 'We used to call it the Cheque. Like, you drink it up now, you pay for it later.”

“Chip said it was his piano hands - one ain't never doing the same thing as the other.”

“I guess mercy is a muscle like any other. You got to exercise it, or it just cramp right up.”

“Do you still call it talent, if it blooms without any kind of nurturing? That's got to be something else.She made talent sound like a damned insult.”

“Ain't no man can outrun his fate.”

“Ain't no glory made from being dependable.”

“It's like that, I guess, when the past come to collect what you owe.”