“Fear made everyone look very alive in a strange and fragile way, like the last flare of a candle before it dies.”

“Colin's skin was alive with the feeling of connection to everyone in that car and everyone not in it. And he was feeling not-unique in the very best possible way.”

“...the thought crossed her mind that a bed was really a very strange thing-a human nest, really, where our human fragility made its nightly demands for comfort and cosseting”

“A little muzhik was working on the railroad, mumbling in his beard. And the candle by which she had read the book that was filled with fears, with deceptions, with anguish, and with evil, flared up with greater brightness than she had ever known, revealing to her all that before was in darkness, then flickered, grew faint, and went out forever.”

“Last week the candle factory burned down. Everyone just stood around and sang, 'Happy Birthday.”

“The strange thing was, he wanted to like everyone. He just couldn't find a way to do it.”