“It's a lie to feel any war is far away.”

“Before she closed the door, she hit me with this one: "I feel like it's November first," she said, "and I'm that discarded jack-o'-lantern whose heart and guts are splattered all over the boulevard of broken promises.""And a good night to you, too," I said.”

“My life is ruined!" She sobbed. "It's just one big rotting whale carcass on the beach of broken dreams!”

“My life," she said dramatically, with her eyes closed, "is one heaping bowl of warmed-over despair, seasoned with equal dashes of aggravation and angst!”

“They lie, you know. It's not easier to ask for forgiveness. Not even a little.”

“Mara, if you're tired, I can hear it. If you're hurt, I can feel it. And if you lie, I will know it.”

“There is no such thing as a “war hero”, because there is nothing about war that is heroic.”