“Genius disregards the boundaries of propriety. Genius is permitted to shout if shouting is productive.”

“Some of those who had been among the most industrious, the kindest, and the most stalwart citizens of Village now went to the platform and shouted their wish that the border be closed so that 'we' (Matty shuddered at the use of 'we') would not have to share the resources anymore.'We need all the fish for ourselves.Our school is not big enough to teach their children, too; only our own.They can't even speak right.We can't understand them.They have too many needs.We don't want to tale care of them.'And finally: 'We've done it long enough.”

“We're all on our own, aren't we? That's what it boils down to. We come into this world on our own- in Hawaii, as I did, or New York, or China, or Africa or Montana- and we leave it in the same way, on our own, wherever we happen to be at the time- in a plane, in our beds, in a car, in a space shuttle, or in a field of flowers. And between those times, we try to connect along the way with others who are also on their own. If we're lucky, we have a mother who reads to us. We have a teacher or two along the way who make us feel special. We have dogs who do the stupid dog tricks we teach them and who lie on our bed when we're not looking, because it smells like us, and so we pretend not to notice the paw prints on the bedspread. We have friends who lend us their favorite books. Maybe we have children, and grandchildren, and funny mailmen and eccentric great-aunts, and uncles who can pull pennies out of their ears. All of them teach us stuff. They teach us about combustion engines and the major products of Bolivia, and what poems are not boring, and how to be kind to each other, and how to laugh, and when the vigil is in our hands, and when we have to make the best of things even though it's hard sometimes. Looking back together, telling our stories to one another, we learn how to be on our own.”

“He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel. He no longer cared about himself”

“Why do some of us turn menacing?' she whispered.”

“-a whole world can lie before someone, if love is there when one wakes.”

“There was just a moment when things weren't quite the same, weren't quite as they had always been through the long friendship”