“Pap said, "Lend me those bolt cutters, Bo""They're in the back of the Explorer."The old man got out the bolt cutter, walked around and snipped one of the leads to the battery on each of the ATV's. The others stood in the darkness watching him, listening to the snip-snip of the bolt cutter."Not a bad idea," said Dave. "That way is any of them get past us, he's going to be on foot.""There's that," Tully said. "And then there's the fact that the old man loves bolt cutters...”

“What's the hurry?" he said"This door is locked," Tully told him."So?""Can you pick a lock?""I'll give it a try.""Be my guest" Tully said, stepping to one side.Pap blew the lock away with the shotgun. He pushed the door open with the barrel.”

“You men. The bra clasp defeats you every time.""I think a demonic engineer mus have designed these things. I may have to get bolt cutters.""Watch out. Bras are often booby-trapped.”

“If time were a bolt of cloth,” said Om, “I would cut out all the bad parts. Snip out the scary nights and stitch together the good parts, to make time bearable. Then I could wear it like a coat, always live happily.”

“You know how to check fer thin ice, boy?" he would ask me. "Wall, what you do is stick one foot way out ahead of you and stomp the ice real hard and listen fer it to make a crackin' sound. Thar now, did you hear how the ice cracked whan Ah stomped it? Thet means it's too thin to hold a man's weight. Now pull me up out of hyar and we'll run back to shore and see if we kin built a fahr b'fore Ah freezes to death!”

“It's been a long, hard day, and bit by bit you have been transformed into a single, vertical, barely ambulatory ache. All that awaits you now is another long, lonely night on the hard, cold ground. "What am I doing out here?" you ask yourself. "I must be mad!" Indeed, you are mad. Otherwise right now you could be warm and cozy and stretched out in front of your beloved TV, munching popcorn and swigging down ice-cold brew, just like a civilized person. "Oh well," you sigh to yourself. "I'd better stop and get a fire going.”

“The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching,' he said. 'The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”