“Is it fair to have given us the memory of what was and the desire of what could be when we must suffer what is?”

“I walked with them, as crowds have that effect on me, I want to do what they do, to journey towards some point of revelation, which of course never comes”

“I had made a decision, although I hardly knew it yet. It's often that way with decisions, they're made in some hidden part of us and the awareness secretes itself slowly into that conscious part of us that imagines it decides.”

“Rules and responsibilities: these are the ties that bind us. We do what we do, because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves. I will do what I have to do. And I will do what I must.”

“Thus is our treaty written; thus is agreement made. Thought is the arrow of time; memory never fades. What was asked is given; the price is paid.”

“I hoped that grief was similar to the other emotions. That it would end, the way happiness did. Or laughter.”

“Nina felt an inordinate pleasure, a pleasure that seemed to creep up on her the way the mud oozed through her barefoot toes.”