“Years of fighting, andm before that, a lifetime on the cusp of it. Conflict we didn't understand...had been at the center of everything.”

“Life is a battle, Sasha. All existence is in conflict. We fight the elements, we fight our consciences, we fight the limitations and eventual mortality of our bodies. All things happen by conflict, of one sort or another.”

“Girls like you can't understand," Julia said, and it was true. Ellie had been popular. She didn't know that some hurts were like a once-broken bone. In the right weather, they could ache for a lifetime.”

“We didn't start the fireIt was always burningSince the world's been turningWe didn't start the fireNo we didn't light itBut we tried to fight it”

“Mankind has had ten-thousand years of experience at fighting and if we must fight, we have no excuse for not fighting well.”

“I'd been beaten before; I'd been humiliated; I'd been spit on and ostracized...all the things you should not have to know about when you are on the cusp of sixteen, but do because you're different.”