She says that what you did was a cry for help." "It was," I say. "That's why I was yelling 'Heeeelp!' I don't really go in for subtlety.

You have to write a lot. And you have to rewrite what you wrote a lot more.

I can’t help feeling a little bit competitive and a little bit disappointed in myself that I’m already so far behind. After all, Yulikova thinks Barron has a real future with the Bureau. She told me so. I told her that sociopaths are relentlessly charming. I think she figured I was joking.

Isn't every hero aware of all the terrible reason they did those good deeds?" Aware of every mistake they ever made and how good people got hurt because of their decisions? Don't they recall the moments they weren't heroic at all? The moments where their heroism led to more deaths than deliberate villainy ever could?

You in trouble?” Sam asks. The way he says it, I wonder if he’s thinking about how to get out of here if I am.

Nobody ever really sees me the way I am, underneath everything. But she did. She does.

He wondered whether growing up was learning that most stories turned out to be lies.