“ 'We've all had judgement lapses that had us tiptoeing toward our own personal apocalypse.' ”

“...a companion had seemed unnecessary fuel when her body still burned at the core, waiting to ignite. But now, with the wind blowing icicles through her [Kit] veins, it felt like she, too, was in the grave. All her nuclear energy had been snuffed like a match between the night's icy fingers.”

“Hiding behind the mask of a quotation, using someone else’s words to bolster our own softly blooming emotions.”

“Most had faded to a light jade by now...all except Chandra, I noted, with more than a little satisfaction. She was still a dazzling Day-Glo emerald, and I gave a little finger wave from across the room. She merely returned the finger.”

“Just because someone tried to make you into a victim didn’t mean that’s what you had to be.”

“Even now...she [Kit] still had a need to believe that most people, that most of life, was good. That belief was a sort of strength, too.”

“...you've been rooked. You know,you got the dust off. Killed. Murdered. Clipped. It's a rough deal, but you've had some good times, right?”