“They’re a-”“-band,” Patrick finished. “I know.”“They’re not just a band,” Orestes said with reverence, his fingers flying over the keyboard.“They’re the modern voice of the collective human conscience.”“Tell that to Tipper Gore.”“Who?”Patrick laughed. “She was before your time, I guess.”“What did you used to listen to when you were a kid?”“The cavemen, banging rocks together,” Patrick said dryly”

“Just so you know, when they say "Once upona time” . . . they’re lying”

“CanI tell you something? Off the record?”Alex nodded.“Before I took this job, I used to work in Maine. And I had a case that wasn’t just a case, if youknow what I mean.”Alex did. She found herself listening in his voice for a note she hadn’t heard before-a low one thatresonated with anguish, like a tuning fork that never stopped its vibration. “There was a womanthere who meant everything to me, and she had a little boy who meant everything to her. And whenhe was hurt, in a way a kid never should be, I moved heaven and earth to work that case, because Ithought no one could possibly do a better job than I could. No one could possibly care more aboutthe outcome.” He looked directly at Alex. “I was so sure I could separate how I felt about what hadhappened from how I had to do my job.”Alex swallowed, dry as dust. “And did you?”“No. Because when you love someone, no matter what you tell yourself, it stops being a job.”“What does it become?”Patrick thought for a moment. “Revenge.”

“Hope, Patrick knew, was the exact measure of distancebetween himself and the person who’d come for help.”

“When feeling came back, in a storm of color and force and sensation, the most you could do was hold on to the person beside you and hope you could weather it. Alex closed her eyes and expected the worst-but it wasn't a bad thing; it was just a different thing. A messier one, more complicated one. She hesitated, and then she kissed Patrick back, willing to concede that you might have to lose control before you could find what you'd been missing.”

“Anna is the only proof I have that I was born into this family. Instead of dropped off on the doorstep by some Bonnie and Clyde couple that ran off into the night. On the surface, we’re polar opposites. Under the skin, though, we’re the same: people think they know what they’re getting, and they’re always wrong. (Jesse)”

“When it's all over, you're remembered for what you did, not what you said you were going to do.”