“They are seed-harvester ants, and while me versus one boy is totally manageable, me versus the pack of them is nearly impossible. Their hunger is a lightsaber, and I am no match for its power.”

“The great irony of motherhood is that while you sometimes long for someone else to be in charge, it is next to impossible to mentally accept that reality.”

“My boys don't always come home from school ready to dish about the day. But if I'm patient, little details will reveal themselves to me. When I check the pockets, I get a peek into my boys' minds, an idea of what they consider amazing and lovely--what they consider to be a thing of beauty. I feel lucky to get a glimpse of this beauty every day.”

“Nothing says I love you like processed food.”

“The artificial primacy of defense among our national priorities is a constant unearned windfall for some, but it's privation for the rest of America; it steals from what we could be and can do. In Econ 101, they teach that the big-picture fight over national priorities is guns versus butter. Now it's butter versus margarine—guns get a pass.Overall, we're weaker for it, and at enormous cost.”

“Well," he said, "I think we've found our way in. We just wait until they're duking it out, but trust me, these Humans First types don't have a lot of staying power or they'd have been at the gym with me before. I doubt Grandma Kent there is going to do a lot of damage." He pointed at a gray-haired, hunched lady in a shawl, carrying what looked liked a gardening tool. "It's like Plants Versus Zombies, and I'm not rooting for the zombies, weirdly enough.”

“The vamp in McMann’s stared at me. I guess he didn’t like the Goth look. Most of them don’t; somehow they think I’m making fun of them.Which I totally am.”