“How strange it (the earthquake) must all have seemed to them, here where they lived so safely always! They thought such a dreadful thing could happen to others, but not to them. That is the way!”

“How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.”

“It is amazing how pretending to be in a different faction changes everything -- even the way I walk. That must be why it's so strange that I could easily belong in three of them.”

“There's lots of things you don't know. All kinds of strange things . . . mostly they happened before we were born: that makes them seem to me so much more real.”

“It reminded me of how children always thought too big; how the world tackled and chiseled them to keep them safe.”

“The people I know who thought brutal thoughts and acted in brutal ways - the racists, the sexists, the bigots - never seemed to doubt themselves. They were always sure that they were right... I almost envied them the strength of their beliefs. It must have made life so much easier for them.”