“They tried to get me—I got them first!”

“I am unjust, but I can strive for justice. My life's unkind, but I can vote for kindness. I, the unloving, say life should be lovely. I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.”

“We left you there, lonely,Beauty your power,Wisdom your watchman,To hold the clay tower.from 'The Tale of the Tiger Tree”

“Except the Christ be born again tonightIn dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame,The world will never see his kingdom bright.”

“I am unlovable...I have tried to involve myself in other people, in relationships, and even - in my sillier moments - in love. But it doesn't work. Something in me is broken or missing and sooner or later the other person catches me Acting or one of Those Nights comes along.”

“I have to kill you,” he stated, using the full press of his body to hold me to the wall, “But—I have to have you first, Leese.” His mouth was moving toward mine, but my face turned away.“You’re going to have to shoot me,” I replied, a certain amount of bravado still clinging to my moral fiber. “The only man that is going to have me will be the one who loves me.”

“I'm not sure what I am. I just know there's something dark in me. I hide it. I certainly don't talk about it, but it's there always, this Dark Passenger. And when he's driving, I feel alive, half sick with the thrill of complete wrongness. I don't fight him, I don't want to. He's all I've got. Nothing else could love me, not even... especially not me. Or is that just a lie the Dark Passenger tells me? Because lately there are these moments when I feel connected to something else... someone. It's like the mask is slipping and things... people... who never mattered before are suddenly starting to matter. It scares the hell out of me.”