“The judge who sits over the murderer and looks into his face, and at one moment recognizes all the emotions and potentialities and possibilities of the murderer in his own soul and hears the murderer's voice as his own, is at the next moment one and indivisible as the judge, and scuttles back into the shell of his cultivated self and does his duty and condemns the murderer to death.”

“And at that moment, Thibaut knew he was a murderer. He had murdered his brother that night; he had taken away his brother's soul.”

“The hero surviving his own murder, his own suicide, his own addiction, surviving his own disappearance from the scene”

“Anyone who remains silent in the face of murder is an accomplice to murder. Anyone who does not condemn approves.”

“In his dream, George Stetchkin was in the dock at the Central Criminal Court, accused of the murder of nine million innocent brain cells. The usher was showing the jury the alleged murder weapon, an empty Bison Brand wodka bottle. Then the judge glared at him over the rims of his spectacles and sentenced him to the worst hangover of his life.”

“When silence greeted her question, she looked at Caine—for that was how he saw himself in that moment and in all the moments after: his brother’s murderer.”