“And then his noise falls completely silent-And he stops struggling-And looking right into my eyes-He dies.My Todd dies.”

“TODD!" I shout again -And he looks at me -And I hear my name in his Noise -And I know it -I know it in my heart -Right now -Todd Hewitt -There's nothing we can't do together -And we're gonna win -”

“Stop!" Narcissus got to his feet. "This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be..." He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he'd talked about anything other than himself. "He must be tricking us." Apparently Narcissus wasn't completely stupid.”

“Who will remember Todd?Who will remember what he did?Todd -Todd -And my heart breaks even more -Breaks forever -And I fall to my knees in the snow and sand -And I yell out, wordless and empty -And I drop the weapon.”

“The falling apart of a man's life should make more noise. It should startle passesrby with its Sturm and Drang. It ought to sound like the Parthenon crashing down. Not this ordinary, everyday kind of quiet...He closed his eyes...And still it was quiet, this falling apart of his life, as silent as the last beat of an old man's heart. A quiet, echoing thud, and then...nothing.”

“Todd paused and stared into Terrence's eyes. there was no understanding there, just a white-hot rage and fear. he was looking at Todd the way you would look at a kid on ritalin who'd just taken a loaded shotgun down from the mantel.”