“A knife is only as good as the one who wields it.”

“As long as I hold it as long as I use it, the knife lives, lives in order to take life, but it has to be commanded, it has to have me to tell it to kill, and it wants to, it wants to plunge and thrust and cut and stab and gouge, but I have to want it to as well, my will has to join with its will. I'm the one who allows it and I'm the one responsible.”

“But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again. ”

“Manchee comes outta the bushes and sits down next to me cuz I’ve stopped right there in the middle of a trail. He looks around to see what I might be seeing and then he says, ”Good poo, Todd.” ”I’m sure it was, Manchee.”I’d better not get another ruddy dog when my birthday comes. What I want this year is a hunting knife like the one Ben carries on the back of his belt. Now that’s a present for a man.“Poo,” Manchee’s says quietly.”

“Everything that's happened has brought me here, to this place, with this knife in my hand, and something worth saving.”

“I look at the knife-Resting in a puddle of water-Near the ledge by the pulpit behind Aaron-Where I dropped it-And I hear it calling to me- Take me, it says- Take me and use me, it says-Aaron hold open his arms."Murder me," he says. "Become a man." Never let me go says the knife”

“There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between.”