“I was leaving.Finally.For good.There was only one way I'd ever return to the town of Christmas, Florida, and it involved my dead body.”

“The dead are lonelier than the living ever can be. They can't hear each other through coffins and the earth....When I die I'd like to be buried in a mass grave. In a mass grave I wouldn't be afraid of the dark, and I'd be lonely only because my grandson will be missing me, the way I miss Grandpa Slavko now.”

“I am dead. Only vengeance can restore me! Only victory can return my life to me!”

“I hated it when literally was used for non-literal things. I popped the tab on my soda can and returned her grin. Over my dead body... literally.”

“I was the kind of kid whose parents would drop him off at the local town library on their way to work, and I'd go and work my way through the children's area.”

“Dying isn't the only way into the Underworld, but it's the safest."Well, that sounded like an oxymoron if I'd ever heard one.”