“-jeez, these guys, with their on-again, off-again rela­tionships, lutgen said;-Yeah, Dave said: now you see them, now you see them once more;-They're virtual insects!, Jurgen said;-Virtually innumerable, said Dave;-I wonder, though, if we haven't got it wrong, Jurgen said: I mean, I wonder if maybe these guys' natural condition isn't to be lit up-if their ground state isn't actually when they're glowing;-Hm, said Dave: so what they're actually doing is turning off their lights­-Right: momentarily going under;-Flashing darkness­-Projecting their inner voids­-Their repeating, periodic depressions ...-So then, I suppose, we should really call them douse bugs---;.-Exactly...-Or nature's faders---;.-Flying extinguishers­-Buzzing snuffers-!-Or maybe­-Or maybe, despite what it looks like, maybe they really are glowing constantly, Jurgen said: but, through some malign unknown mechanism, their everlasting light is peri­odically swallowed up by un-understood atmospheric forces;-So then they're being occluded­-Rudely occluded­-Denied their God-given right to shine ...-So that, I suppose, would make them-o horror-victims­-Yeah: victims of predatory darkness­-Of uncontrollable flares of night;-So it isn't bioluminescence, but eco-eclipsis­-Exactly: ambient effacement­-Nature's station-identification­-Ongoing lessons in humility ...-In fact, that might explain the nits' efficiency factor, Jurgen Said: you know, these guys burn so cleanly that they produce what's known in the trade as cold light they put together this real slow oxidation reaction within these little cell-structures called photocytes, using a really weird enzyme and substrate that're, like, named for the devil; and the result is virtually 100% efficient: almost no heat is lost at all...-So, in fact, these folks should be our heroes­-Exactly: our role models­-Our ego ideals---;.-Hosts of syndicated talk shows­-Spokes-things for massive advertising campaigns---;.-In fact, children should be forced to leave their families and go be raised by them­-MacArthur winners, all...”

“Do you like Mother and Father?" "they're both all right""they're not Jimmy, and you shouldn't say so. I hate them, and you should hate them.""all right" I said, "I hate them.”

“They call it love," said Vernon. "I don't know what they mean by it. What do you mean [by love]?""I don't exactly know," said Temple slowly. "I suppose it's wanting to be with a person, and thinking about nothing else. And thinking they're the most beautiful and all that. And going over everything that they've ever said to you, and wanting— Well, I suppose if it's really love you want to marry them.”

“On the black earth on which the ice plants bloomed, hundreds of black stink bugs crawled. And many of them stuck their tails up in the air. "Look at all them stink bugs," Hazel remarked, grateful to the bugs for being there. "They're interesting," said Doc. "Well, what they got their asses up in the air for?" Doc rolled up his wool socks and put them in the rubber boots and from his pocket he brought out dry socks and a pair of thin moccasins. "I don't know why," he said. "I looked them up recently--they're very common animals and one of the commonest things they do is put their tails up in the air. And in all the books there isn't one mention of the fact that they put their tails up in the air or why." Hazel turned one of the stink bugs over with the toe of his wet tennis shoe and the shining black beetle strove madly with floundering legs to get upright again. "Well, why do you think they do it?" "I think they're praying," said Doc. "What!" Hazel was shocked. "The remarkable thing," said Doc, "isn't that they put their tails up in the air--the really incredibly remarkable thing is that we find it remarkable. We can only use ourselves as yardsticks. If we did something as inexplicable and strange we'd probably be praying--so maybe they're praying." "Let's get the hell out of here," said Hazel.”

“We should have a name for them, Anna said.The Sick, or the Infected? Something. Something to differentiate them from the real people we see - I mean, the normal survivors like us.The Thirsty? Dave suggested.The Thirsty? Anna said sarcastically. Like, look out Dave - there's a Thirsty behind you?The Arseholes, Mini said. The Scary Arseholes.That works, I said with a grin. Look out Dave, there's an arsehole behind you!”

“Look at those clouds," said Jamie, gazing up at the sky. "Look at them." "Yes," said Isabel. "They're very beautiful, aren't they? Clouds are very beautiful and yet so often we fail to appreciate them properly. We should do that. We should look at them and think about how lucky we are to have them." "Look at the shape of the clouds," she said. "What do you see in those beautiful clouds, Jamie?""I see you," he said.”