“We're each alone inside our heads, some more so than others.”

“...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.”

“Sometimes shame is a more powerful engine than rage.”

“They held each other and wept as the night closed its fist around their tiny shelter, and the world below them seethed with killers both living and dead.”

“So, basically if we keep trying to save the country and maybe the world from a bunch of murderous assholes with outer space weapons, then we're the bad guys?""In a nutshell.""Then, hey ... let's be bad guys.”

“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.”

“Basher shook his head. "No, we climbed in through a ground-floor guest bedroom all ninja-like. Snuck up the back stairs.""Then you might be the cavalry," said Tom, "but I'm Santa Claus. Let's go downstairs and open some presents.”