“Even if you couldn't see it beneath the surface, molecules were bonding, energy pushing up slowly, as something worked do hare, all alone to grow.”

“The energy it sapped from him, not being able to protect her. You wouldn't think that something you couldn't do and were not doing would take any energy, but it did.”

“Find someone to push him ever sunward. There's always something you're not supposed to see but it is a condition of growing up that you will see it.”

“Eli had learned long ago that you can stare right at something and not see what lies beneath the surface.”

“Growing up means learning to dig beneath surface behavior and discern the true motives of others, and to respond to intent, not behavior.”

“It was all so artificial. It was beautiful, but it did not belong to her. She was a tourist, an outsider, and she could only see the thin surface veneer of things; she couldn't get beneath it to the real heart of anything.”