“Something must have happened, your mother speculated. In her mind a woman with no child could only be explained by vast untrammeled calamity.Maybe she just doesn't like children.Nobody likes children, your mother assured you. That doesn't mean you don't have them.”

“There were a lot of these middle-aged single types in the neighborhood, shipwrecked by every kind of catastrophe, but she was one of the few who didn't have children, who lived alone, who was still kinda young. Something must have happened, your mother speculated. In her mind, a woman with no child could be explained only by vast untrammelled calamity.Maybe she just doesn't like children.Nobody likes children, your mother assured you. That doesn't mean you don't have them.”

“Nobody likes children, your mother assured you. That doesn't mean you don't have them.”

“I don't know, Jondalar. Maybe you haven't found the right woman. Maybe the Mother has someone special for you. She doesn't make many like you. You are really more than most women could bear. If all your love were concentrated on one, it could overwhelm her, if she wasn't one to whom the Mother gave equal gifts.”

“I have learned that the love a mother has for her child is unique among human emotions. Every mother knows this insticntively, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need articulating.”

“Don't threaten me with your death, Mother. God doesn't want you, and the Devil won't have you. Doesn't want the competition.”