“...but most houses in California were built without roots, leaving us trapped above ground with the light.”

“The light filtered throught the leaves and pine needles above as if through lace, the ground spotted in shadow.”

“What went on in that head of his? I would soon come to understand that he gave voice to only a fraction of the thoughts that swam behind his eyes. It was not nearly so clean and smooth in there as it seemed. Other lives were houses in that mind, parallel worlds. Maybe we're all built a little that way. But most of us drop hints. Most of us leave clues. My father was more careful.”

“If an election were held here tomorrow,” Fahd once confided to a colleague, “Bin Baz would beat us without even leaving his house.”

“We have lied to ourselves. We have not built this box for the good of our brothers. We built it for its own sake. It is above all our brothers to us, and its truth above their truth.”

“None of the wives mention the security guards by the door, who will probably tackle us to the ground if we try to leave without our husbands.”