“And one there was, a dreamer born,Who, with a mission to fulfill,Had left the Muses' haunts to turnThe crank of an opinion-mill,Making his rustic reed of songA weapon in the war with wrong,... "A Tent on the Beach”

“In crisp, clean prose Amy Reed places the reader right into the heart and mind and life of a girl who makes the choice to be one of the beautiful ones. Reed gives a disturbing and concise snapshot of what it can be like today for teens struggling with self-identity and peer acceptance when in a heartbeat they follow the 'wrong road.”

“When two totaltarian powers makes war on each other, the anger and hatred that arise can be appeased only by the death of one or the other. More than this, such killing is profoundly satisfying. Anger and hatred are fulfilled in destrusction insofar as such emotion know satiety. The more lives the soldier succeeds in accounting for, the prouder he is likely to feel. To war is in no sense a game or dirty mess. It is a mission”

“Although the scythe isn't pre-eminent among the weapons of war, anyone who has been on the wrong end of, say, a peasants' revolt will know that in skilled hands it is fearsome.”

“I left you clean. Purged of all your ghosts. I am the one who has been haunted all my life. Haunted by you.”

“God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly.”