“She craved a family, not having had enough of one to understand what a pain in the ass it was.”

“Chet suddenly wished she had quit teaching the class because of him, that he’d had any effect on her at all.”

“Yvette had never talked about her marriage - she was a smart girl, and she knew you had no right to complain about someone you got all the way to the altar with. You made that choice, even if you were a child when you did it, and the marriage vow was sacred.”

“The force with which he wanted it both ways made him grit his teeth. What kind of fool wanted it only one way?”

“Children were experiments, and his had failed.”

“I baptize you in the name of the conservation of energy. What comes around goes around.”

“All the while, Everett felt both the threat of disorder and the steady, thrumming promise of having everything he wanted, all at once.”