“Tranq'd by your own gun,"Lev says."How pathetic.”

“So," says Lev, as casually as he can, "you wanna dance?" "Do you believe in the end of the world?" she responds. Lev shrugs. "I don't know. Why?" "Because the day after that is when I'll dance with you.”

“Lev smiles. "Leave it to you to turn someone else's screwup into gold”

“Damn right! The time of your life! Gotta wrap up all those life events, all those parties, into one - birthdays, wedding, funeral." THen he turns to their father. "Very efficient, right, Dad?"...."Here's to my brother, Lev," Marcus says. "And to our parents! Who have always done the right thing. The appropriate thing. Who have always given generously to charity. Who have always given 10 percent of everything to our church. Hey, Mom - we're lucky you had ten kids instead of five, otherwise we'd end up having to cut Lev off at the waist!”

“Lev looks at Risa, almost afraid to ask the obvious question. Finally he says, 'Uh...why do we have a baby?''Ask him,' says Risa.Stone-faced, Conner looks out of the window. 'They're looking for two boys and a girl. Having a baby will throw them off.''Great,' snaps Risa. 'Maybe we should all pick up a baby along the way.”

“So Connor stands there with secret anticipation each time there's a group of new arrivals, hoping beyond hope he'll find that self-righteous, self-important, pain-in-the-ass Lev still alive.”

“You...you lost your faith?""No...just my convictions. I still very much believe in God- just not a god who condones human tithing." Lev begins to feel himself choking up with an unexpected flood of feeling, all the emotions that had been building up throughout their talk- throughout the weeks- arriving all at once like a sonic boom."I never knew there was a choice.”