“The wrong man could have brought it all crashing down,” she told him. “A different man might have collapsed under the weight of the responsibility.”

“Clearly I miss Him, having been brought up in religion. But now a man must be responsible to himself.”

“The vulnerability undid him even as the strength brought him pride. And the whole of her brought him love beyond the measuring of it.Of all he'd craved in his life, all he'd dreamed of having, all he'd fought to gain by fair means or foul, he'd never imagined having such such as she as his own. Never imagined himself the man he'd come to be because she was.”

“Things would have turned out differently if he'd been wearing shoes. A shoeless man is a defenseless man. A shoeless man can't be held responsible for his actions.”

“Al brought his attention back down from the ceiling. “You really don’t want to have sex with him? Why? What’s wrong with him?”

“Returning his pen to its holder, he told us, 'I will have him gutted with that scythe. I will hang him by his own intestines.' At this piece of dramatic exposition, I could not hep but roll my eyes. A length of intestines would not carry the weight of a child, much less a full grown man.”