“Why are you so interested in amoebas?""Oh, they're immortal," he said, "and sort of shapeless and flexible. Being aperson is getting too complicated.”

“Why is life so complicated....?' I asked.'To keep us from being bored,' he said.”

“You cannot write for children. They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them. ”

“Was he going to ask me to go with him? Maybe I was getting ahead of myself and he was just making conversation. Oh, why was talking to a boy so fraught with complication?”

“Hello, Kanta. They're saying interesting things about you on the news," she said. "I wondered if you'd survived.""He didn't," I said. "I killed him."Silence."I killed Mkhai, too," I said. "Tens of thousands of years, gone in the blink of an eye.""Why are you telling me this?" asked the voice."Because you're next," I said. "I'm the demon slayer. Come and get me.”

“It occurs to me,Jim,that you spend too much time trying to be interesting. Why don't you invest more time being interested?"Collin's advice from John Gardner that he took to heart.”