“If being queer meant loving Aaron, then he'd own the label, at least internally.”

“Everyone loved a good reader. And he'd always loved being a great reader - until recently. Maybe it was just part of getting older, or maybe it was being a librarian, or just being here, but lately he'd found he was becoming suspicious of his own love of books. All that reading - it had started to seem wrong, worthless almost, without purpose.”

“The world loves stupid labels. I wish we got to choose our own.”

“Well," Fred said. "Gotta go. You two come by for dinner soon. I'll barbecue something."Where Fred was concerned, that probably meant he'd shoot something first, then barbecue it, but that was fine by Tony. He'd eat barbecued yak if it meant being a part of this family”

“How folks lay claim to a loved one is they give you a name of their own. They figure to label you as their property.”

“While like most men, Sam prided himself on being equipped with a supernatural internal compass that kept him from ever being lost, he'd also learned to concede those rare times when that compass seemed to be temporary disrepair.”