“Bird and bear and hare and fish, give my love her fondest wish.”

“At the end of her life she was aware of heat but not pain. She had time to consider his eyes, eyes of that blue which is the color of the sky at first light of the morning. She had time to think of him on the Drop, riding Rusher flat out with his black hair flying back from his temples and his neckerchief rippling; to see him laughing with an ease and freedom he would never find again in the long life which stretched out for him beyond hers, and it was his laughter she took with her as she went out, fleeing the light and heat in to the silkly, consoling dark, calling to him over and over as she went, calling bird and bear and hare and fish.”

“Your Plan and the stuff that comes out of my asshole bear a suspicious resemblance to each other.”

“Twas something else. I had come to hate her, you see. I had come to wish her dead, and that was what held me back.”

“In the end, daughter of pandora that I am, my curiosity got the best of me. I wish it hadn't.”

“A woman who would steal your love when your love was really all you had to give was not much of a woman.”

“That was what I wanted, but I don't need it to be gone. I can love you and I can love life and bear the pain all at the same time. I think the pain might even make the rest better, the way a good setting can make a diamond look better.”