“I can't promise I won't soil my trousers in here," he said. "You and me both." Pete extended his hand. Mr. Stovall gripped it tight and they shook on the matter of potential pants-sh*tting, then rejoined the other vampires at the door.”

“The door closed behind her (Phoebe), and the two men regarded each other for a moment. Viktor spoke first. "I must have your promise, Coach, that you won't hurt her." Dan: "I won't." Viktor: "You spoke a little too quickly for my taste. I don't quite believe you." Dan: "I'm a man of my word, and I promise I won't hurt her." He flexed his hands. "When I murder her, I'll do it real quick so she won't feel a thing." Viktor sighed. "That's exactly what I was afraid of.”

“I can't get you anything?" He asked. She shook her head and smiled. "Just you.”

“I must have your promise, Coach, that you won't hurt her.""I promise.""You spoke a bit too quickly for my taste. I don't quite believe you.""I'm a man of my word, and I promise that I won't hurt her.When I murder her, I'll do it real quick, so she won't feel a thing."Viktor sighed. "That's exactly what I was afraid of.”

“I didn't promise you shit. My dead friends, on the other hand--I made them certain promises I intend to keep.”

“You can't pick and choose which types of freedom you want to defend. You must defend all of it or be against all of it.”

“...I couldn't let go of her hand. For a few moments, I looked at the shape of it, the roundness of her fingers. I realized that her hands gave me a sense of comfort because they were the most familiar part of her to me. Those hands had always been in my sight when I was a child. Those were the hands I held crossing the street, the hands that made me lunch and cooked me dinner, the hands that stroked me when I was feeling sad, the hands on the steering wheel driving me all over town, the hands whose rings I had looked at and played with, turning them around on her finger. I knew then that regardless of how we had fought and cried and how adoption had affected us both, those hands, free of words and emotional baggage, encompassed everything. They were pure love-all the love that she had for me.”