“I hope that I live for a thousand years, and have a thousand daughters so that there will always be a woman who can curse your name.”

“Because she was seventeen, and still alive, against thousands of years' worth of odds.Because she knew enough to fear what the future would bring.”

“You said a curse is only a curse if I allowed myself to me cursed by it. You said... I had it in my power to free myself of any curse - that curses were preludes to blessings...”

“Ix who?""Ix Caut. Your name in this life meant 'Little Snake.'" Bill watched her face change. "It was a term of endearment in the Mayan culture. Sort of.""The same way getting your head impaled on a stick was an honor?"Bill rolled his stone eyes. "Stop being so ethnocentric.That means thinking your own culture is superior to other cultures.""I know what it means," she said, working the band into her dirty hair. "But I'm not being superior. I just don't think having my head stuck on one of these racks would be so great." There was a faint thrumming in the air,like faraway drumbeats."That's exactly the sort of thing Ix Caut would say! You always were a little bit backward!""What do you mean?""See,you-Ix Caut-were born during the Wayeb',which are these five odd days at the end of Mayan year that everyone gets real superstitious about because they don't fit into the calendar. Kind of like leap-year days.It's not exactly lucky to be born during the Wayeb'. So no one was shocked when you grew up to be an old maid.”

“He had the innate sense that something bad was just around the bend, but a hope that something incredible was waiting in the distance. It had to be.His burning love for her cursed through him until he felt so full he didn’t know whether he would fit through the portal.”

“Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere. We can't always understand them, but we have to trust in them. I know you want to question everything, but sometimes it pays to just have a little faith.”

“You may not believe it,but there are many who wish to wield the power that I wield.Who...adore me.""You're right.I don't believe you.""You just don't know enough.About anything. I've taken you on a tour of your past-shown you the futility of this existence,hoping to awaken you to the truth,and all I get from you is 'Daniel! I want Daniel!”