“I wanted the syrupy taste of this small rebellion. And this stupid machine was denying that bit of freedom to me . . . just like everyone else.”

“Shoulders slumped in defeat, I turned to walk away. The drugstore had caved under the force of my criminal will, but the Coke machine was virtuous. Inviolate.”

“God cannot be with everyone. Not everyone is right.”

“There was a difference, I had decided, between knowing and believing. And I wanted both.”

“I was a hypocrite. When the roof came down, it was going to fall on me first.”

“I think I’d rather be branded than submit to some of the things that you have to.” He said this without spite, just a soft statement of fact. “I’m not strong enough to do that.”

“For me, that was love. Tangible. Love was what was in front of me, not a distant fantasy.”