“Every hour wounds. The last one kills.”

“Words can wound, and wounds can heal.”

“There was a hysteria in there, certainly, but there was also the exhaustion of someone who had managed, somehow, to believe several dozen impossible things in the last twenty-four hours, without ever getting a proper breakfast.”

“The view changes from where you are standing.Words can wound, and wounds can heal.All of these things are true.”

“Las Vegas has become a child's picture-book dream of a city-here a storybook castle, there a sphinx-flanked black pyramid beaming white light into the darkness as a landing beam for UFOs, and everywhere neon oracles and twisting screens predict happiness and good fortune, announce singers and comedians and magicians in residence or on their way, and the lights always flash and beckon and call. Once every hour a volcano erupts in light and flame. Once every hour a pirate ship sinks a man o'war.”

“You know what killed off the dinosaurs, Whateley? We did. In one barbecue.”

“You should know that if we do fucking kill you, the we'll just delete you. You got that? One click and then you're overwriten with random ones and zeros. Undelete is not an option.”