“She was only saying what I already knew in my heart, but hearing the words spoken made it seem all the more true, all the more terrifying.Words gave concepts power. Once they were released, there was no choice but to understand them, no matter how painful they might be.”

“How was it even possible to know if your brain was malfunctioning, because the very thing you need to think it all through is the very thing that might be playing up in the first place”

“The process of reading a book takes a while to get used to (in this future society). It's so slow and laborious. But once you get into it, once you forget the way you're reading and concentrate on what you're reading, it becomes a really unique experience. You have to work to draw meaning from it rather than having a meaning given to you. It doesn't tell you how to think.”

“You kids are handling this a whole lot better than he is.’I wondered if that meant we were pretty darned tough.Or whether we simply lacked the imagination to see how bad things really were”

“I think that's what we all want, in the end.To know that we left footprints when we passed by, however briefly.We want to be remembered.So remember us.Please.Remember us.”

“Adults are just making things up as they go along. And when they’re scared, adults have no more answers than us kids”

“In extraordinary times, the ordinary takes on a glow and wonder all of its own”