“What can be sadder than a discouraged artist dying not from his own commonplace maladies, but from the cancer of oblivion?”

“The scientist has in common with the artist only this: that he can find no better retreat from the world than his work and no stronger link with the world than his work.”

“Better oblivion chosen of his own will than torture forever according to his brother's.”

“Nothing fires the warrior’s heart more with courage than to find himself and his comrades at the point of annihilation, at the brink of being routed and overrun, and then to dredge not merely from one’s own bowels or guts but from one’s discipline and training the presence of mind not to panic, not to yield to the possession of despair, but instead to complete those homely acts of order which Dienekes had ever declared the supreme accomplishment of the warrior: to perform the commonplace under far-from-commonplace conditions.”

“There is only one things in this world shittier than biting it from cancer when you're sixteen, and that's having a kid who bites it from cancer.”

“Each appointment brought fear, uncertainty and discouragement. Ann’s constant concern was, What if I have cancer?”