“Hell was something the Lost Girl knew. She has lived it all her life.”

“Hell's a-coming and we all gotta learn to play the blues. (347)”

“Walls, towns, rules, and day-to-day life doesn't make us civilized ... That's organization and ritual. Civilization lives in our hearts and heads or it doesn't exist at all.”

“Benny took a steadying breath and let it out slowly."Nix, I do understand what you're going through. I'm going through it too.""It's not the same thing," she said very quietly. An elk poked its head out from behind some sagebrush, studied them for a moment, then bent to eat berries from another bush."Then why won't you tell me what it is?"She glared at him. "Honestly, Benny, sometimes I think you don't even know who I am."With that she turned and stalked away, her spine as stiff as a board. Benny stood openmouthed until she was almost back to the tree where Chong sat with Eve."What the hell was that all about?" he asked the elk.The elk, being and elk, said nothing.”

“She gathered the cat up in her arms and held it to her chest as if it was the most precious thing in the world.”

“I don't ever want to live in a world where something like mercy...or maybe it's compassion...is the wrong choice.”

“...but it was death that changed. People are still people. Some good, some bad. Death changed, and we don't know what death really means anymore. Maybe that was the point. Maybe this is an object lesson about the arrogance of our assumptions. Hard to say. But the world? She didn't change. She healed. We stopped hurting her and she began to heal. You can see it all around. The whole world is a forest now. The air is fresher. More trees, more oxygen.”