“Back then, they’d liked their cars the way they’d liked their men. Big, powerful, and mean.”

“I mean, it was hard on them. They were turning their backs on everything they’d ever known, because they’d decided there was something that mattered more than doing what they’d been taught to do. Hell, what they’d been raised to do. This wasn’t a choice they made on a whim. This was everything to them.”

“Business idea: People like to eat and drive, so why not make edible cars? Instead of gasoline, they’d run on coffee.”

“Y’look like someone told you they’d stopped making lube.”

“Honey, you hurt him and men don’t take that well. They shove their emotions deep inside where you can’t hurt them again. In many ways they’re a lot like women, though they’d deny that.”

“How, Yusef wondered, can two men joke like that and tomorrow be enemies. Perhaps they’d been enemies yesterday. He decided public servants weren’t human.”