“The gods, so says the old superstition, do not like to behold too happy mortals. It is certain, at least, that some human beings do not.”

“And Mega has a crush on Chester.""I do not!""Do too, Mega.""He's like, old!""How old, Christian says.""Like at least thirty or something."Lor laughs. " Fucking ancient, ain't it, kid?""Dude," I agree. I like Lor.”

“There are certain mortal moments and minutes that matter. Certain hingepoints in the history of each human. Some seconds are so decisive they shrink the soul, while others are spent, so as to stretch the soul.”

“The Yogic scriptures say that God responds to the sacred prayers and efforts of human beings in any way whatsoever that mortals choose to worship - just so long as those prayers are sincere.”

“Human beings... are far too prone to generalize from one instance. The technical word for this, interestingly enough, is superstition.”

“If we cannot live entirely like human beings, at least let us do everything in our power not to live entirely like animals.”