“He sees a human body of a type that is supposed to fit the curves of his brain, but the body is so warped and broken that it can no longer cozy up to any of those curves.”

“The fear is so deep, so irrational, so immediate, that I can neither doubt it or examine it.”

“I figure God's a creative guy. So when he comes down and lives with us in disguise, he can't help leaking creations here and there. Either that or he's an idiot. I haven't decided yet. Not a normal idiot- an idiot savant. God, idiot savant, what's the difference?”

“We depend on each other to lift ourselves up. Suffering is craving is fear is delusion clinging to selfhood, clinging to objects, clinging to the trivia that we think makes us happy. Clinging to superficialities. Clinging to the covering that separates us from each other. Strip off all that delusion, and we take a step forward toward each other and a step toward enlightenment.”

“The exact moment of dawn is always hard to spot, especially when the ground breathes out steam after a winter rain.”

“Unscrewing the cap, Gabriel squeezed a bit of clear jelly onto his fingers and understood. Covering Joey’s body with his own, Gabriel kissed his lips. “But you said – something we haven’t tried …” “We haven’t.” Reaching up, Joey cupped Gabriel’s cheek. “What happened before was one stranger attacking another. What happens now is between you and me.” “Joey.” Gabriel kissed the other man’s earlobe, his jawline, the hollow of his throat. “I can’t hurt you again. I’ll kill myself first.”

“Already, the brain consumed more than a quarter of the body's blood supply... an organ accounting for only a small percentage of body mass. If brains grew larger, and better, then perhaps they would consume more - perhaps so much that, like an infection, they would overrun their hosts and kill the bodies that transported them. Or perhaps, in their infinite cleverness, they would find a way to destroy themselves and each other. There were times when, as he [Stone] sat at State Department or Defense Department meetings, and looked around the table, he would see nothing more than a dozen gray, convoluted brains sitting on the table... Just brains, sitting around, trying to decide how to outwit other brains, at other conference tables.Idiotic.”