“If you have an ancestor who is a Benedictine monk, we would rather not know it.”

“But his face had that hollow look, as if there was something gone... you know that look. The inward focus. Distantly attentive to the home you're missing, or the someone you're missing. That look that a bird has when it turns it dry reptilian eye on you. That look that doesn't see you because the mind is filled up with someone it would rather see.”

“We only have babies when we're young enough not to know how grim life turns out. Once we really get the full measure of it--we're slow learners, we women--we dry up in disgust and sensibly halt production.”

“When have we required anything of you? Except to survive?”

“What's big, thick, makes the earth move, and wants to have its way with you?" "I don't know, but can you introduce me?”

“People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”

“People who claim they’re evil are usually no worse than the rest of us. It’s the people who claim that they’re good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of”