“the pre-friday world of school, cell phones, and refrigerators dissolved into this post-friday world of ash, darkness, and hunger.”

“Hunger of choice is a painful luxury; hunger of necessity is terrifying torture.”

“Maybe we were ghosts of a sort, spirits from the world that had died when the volcano erupted.”

“So I thought I’d feel different afterward, after the visible neon sign proclaiming 'virgin' had blinked out on my forehead. I’d spent years obessessing about it, so it seemed like somthing should have changed. Maybe it would have if I’d still been at Ceder Falls High School surrounded by the gossip and the braggadocio of teenage boys. But on my uncle's farm, nobody noticed, or at least nobody said anything. The next day, like every day, we dug corn, chopped wood, and carried water. And it didn’t really change much between Darla and me, either. Yes, making love was fun, but it wasn’t really any more fun than anything we’d already been doing together. Just different.”

“A librarian can’t live by books alone, and I wouldn’t eat them if I could. Feel too much like cannibalism.”

“I never would have guessed that matches and lighters would be among the things I'd miss the most if civilization collapsed”

“A night spent spooning with your girlfriend isn't nearly so exciting when your uncle is curled up against your other side.”