“Maybe this was one of those times when being a hero didn’t involve looking particularly brave. It was just doing what you should.”

“Being brave was easy when you would rather die than give up.”

“The real problem with being around James was that he was always the hero. And what did that make you? Either the sidekick or the villain.”

“You didn’t get the quest you wanted, you got the one you could do.”

“That’s what death did, it treated you like a child, like everything you had ever thought and done and cared about was just a child’s game, to be crumpled up and thrown away when it was over. It didn’t matter. Death didn’t respect you. Death thought you were bullshit, and it wanted to make sure you knew it.”

“Being a hero, the man had observed, is largely a matter of knowing one’s cues.”

“Sometimes you just have to do things, Quentin,” Julia said, as he climbed on board after her. “You spend too much of your time waiting.”