“Walter broke off a piece of a smile and tucked it into his left cheek as if reserving it for future use.”

“Forget about what you are escaping from. Reserve your anxiety for what you are escaping to.”

“An invisible gas clouds his thoughts, exhaust from a bus left with its engine running in the middle of his brain.”

“Landsman recognizes the expression on Dick's face...The face of a man who feels he was born into the wrong world. A mistake has been made; he is not where he belongs. Every so often he feels his heart catch, like a kite on a telephone wire, on something that seems to promise him a home in the world or a means of getting there. An American car manufactured in his far-off boyhood, say, or a motorcycle that once belonged to the future king of England, or the face of a woman worthier than himself of being loved.”

“He was never unfaithful to Bina. But there is no doubt that what broke the marriage was Landsman’s lack of faith.”

“Like the Party he had joined too late, too young, Chan was a lost claim check, a series of time lapse photos of a promise as it broke.”

“Singletary arched an eyebrow then, after taking a look around the room, smiled a dubious but encouraging smile, the way you might smile at someone about to depress the ignition button on a homemade jetpack.”