“There was a glass-fronted cabinet opposite, filled with plates on display stands and teacups with so many curlicues it was a wonder you could drink from them without cutting your lips.”

“Her accent's funny, different from mine, different from anyone in Prentisstown's. Her lips make different kinds of outlines for the letters, like they're swooping down on them from above, pushing them into shape, telling them what to say. In Prentisstown, everyone talks like they're sneaking up on their words, ready to club them from behind.”

“I just stand there like a doofus wondering just what in the effing blazes is going on.”

“Cuz when I held you for the first time this morning and fed you from my own body, I felt so much love for you it was almost like pain, almost like I couldn't stand it one longer.”

“Cept for Ben, who I can’t describe much further without seeming soft and stupid and like a boy, so I won’t, just to say that I never knew my pa, but if you woke up one day and had a choice of picking one from a selecshun, if someone said, here, then, boy, pick who you want, then Ben wouldn’t be the worst choice you could make that morning.”

“Mistress Coyle agreed, and Simone set to work, planning the whole thing with the absolute focus on capturing aSpackle and sending it back with a message of peace.Which seems strange after we’ve killed so many of them to do it, but it’s been obvious since the beginning that wars makeno sense. You kill people to tell them you want to stop killing them.”

“There's so much wonder in the world. Don't let no one tell you otherwise.”