“Maybe human beings are programmed...to help one another, even to fall in love. But just because it's human nature doesn't make it bad...”

“You and David could both be right. Maybe human beings are programmed … to help one another, even to fall in love. But just because it's human nature doesn't make it bad, Tally. Besides, we had a whole city of pretties to choose from, and we chose each other."-Zane”

“It's just programming""No. It's because I love him”

“It's not the way Zane looks, David," she said, her voice trembling with anger. "It's because he makes me bubbly, and because we took a lot of risks together. It could just as easily be me lying there, and he would stay with me if it was.""It's just programming!" "No. It's because I love him.”

“It's amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.”

“Left alone, human beings are a plague. They multiply relentlessly, consuming every resource, destroying everything they touch.”

“Maybe she still was a pretty-head, making up irrational stories about the empty forest. The longer she stayed alone out here, the more Tally understood why the Rusties and their predecessors had believed in invisible beings, praying to placate spirits as they trashed the natural world around them.”