“I say, when Mercury arrives, we just pretend we’re not here.” Lawetipped back his whiskey and swallowed in a single drink. “Stay real quiet.Don’t make eye contact.”They all nodded.”

“To present a whole world that doesn’t exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we’re polymaths. That’s just the act of all good writing.”

“Extinction, that’s where it’s going, that’s where we’re headed. And we’re going that way because we’re all so fucking afraid of it. We’re so afraid of dying off that we’re setting ourselves up for exactly that. Keeping away from each other, rarely making eye contact with those we don’t already know. Not helping when folks need help. Avoiding confrontation and staying away when we see anything which might instill fear. Doing our best to stay out of trouble, while in effect creating more trouble.”

“Why do you pretend, when you can make it real? We like pretending to be someone else but the truth we just want to be ourselves.”

“All right. We'll swing by the estate first. You're to stay in the transport, though. I'll bring you his head."Kay swallowed convulsively. Pressing his lips tightly together, he nodded. His eyes were wet. "Please. Just....put the head in a bag. I'd hate to get sick all over the inside of this transport.”

“For heaven’s sake, if you don’t know someone’s name, just pretend you do. Do that thing everyone else does, where you vaguely say, “Nice to see you!” and make weak eye contact.”