There are two competing philosophies in Wool: one is that people have to live under an iron thumb in order to survive, and the other one is that everyone should live completely freely and happily and everything will sort itself out.

Ever since I was twelve, I dreamed of being an author. I just never had the fortitude to see any of my stories through to completion. I would start a book, get a few chapters in, and grow bored or get distracted by something else.

There were certain things, learned so young and remembered so deep that they felt like little stones in the center of her mind.

I'm coming for you. I'm coming home, I'm coming to clean

A seed of hope caught a taste of moisture. Some wishful kernel buried deep, where he was loathe to acknowledge it lest it poison or choke him, began to sprout.

"What we control," Juliette said, "is our actions once fate puts us there."

It was the hubris of each generation to think this anew, to think that their time was special, that all things would come to an end with them.