“No one can ever say the name Abel without saying Cain first.”

“When he heard his father call out for Abel and he saw his borther go forth, it made him feel like he was nothing. He couldn’t even say that he felt like Cain anymore. One could not feel like Cain because it had no flavor. Cain was the absence of flavor. Cain was like saliva or a Wednesday.”

“On the whole, we're a murderous race. According to Genesis, it took as few as four people to make the planet too crowded to stand, and the first murder was a fratricide. Genesis says that in a fit of jealous rage, the very first child born to mortal parents, Cain, snapped and popped the first metaphorical cap in another human being. The attack was a bloody, brutal, violent, reprehensible killing. Cain's brother Abel probably never saw it coming. As I opened the door to my apartment, I was filled with a sense of empathic sympathy and intuitive understanding. For freaking Cain.”

“My first and last name is like a candy bar in your mouth that you can chew on as you say it.”

“Simply minding one's own business is more offensive than being intrusive. Without ever saying a word one can make a person feel less-than.”

“How can he love being... that? Being what Caine is?""Because he's an asshole," she says. "You must have noticed.”