“The Hand roused. It lumbered to its feet, reeking of ionized air and dry metallic bones, revealing a level of functionality Alif had not detected. He reeled backward, recalibrating. Breaching the confines of the State intranet, the Hand began to attack the base of Alif's tower, slicing away layers of code through a mirroring protocol of a kind Alif had never seen before.”

“It's okay to be yourself. An original always worth more than a copy. - Alif , Velvet di Durham -”

“Trout was petrified there on Forty-second Street. It had given him alife not worth living, but I had also given him an iron will to live. Thiswas a common combination on the planet Earth.”

“As a boy, all I ever wanted was this: alife dedicated to art; every idea, every breath an artistic gesture. And here is this girl before me,blowing on her hands to keep warm. And why am I so worried it’s not going to last?”

“How dense and literal it is. I thought it had a much more sophisticated brain." "Your mother is dense," Alif said wearily. "My mother was an errant crest of sea foam. But that is neither here nor there.”

“Servitude is not easy. Obedience is not a one-time decision. Obedience is alife time discipline. But it does bring a cimplicty to life because it settles the issue of who is in control.”