I'll take the shooting. I'm used to that. I've been shot a few times in the past, and I guess I can stand it, again.

Her sanity was a fragile thing, a butterfly cupped in her hands, that she carried with her everywhere, afraid of what would happen if she let it go-or got careless and crushed it.

I see God now as an unimaginative writer of popular fictions, someone who builds stories around sadistic and graceless plots, narratives that exist only to express His terror of a woman's power to choose who and how to love, to redefine love as she sees fit, not as God thinks it ought to be. The author is unworthy of His own characters.

If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains.

There's only room for one hero in this story-and everyone knows the devil doesn't get to be the good guy.

I'll take the shooting. I'm used to that. I've been shot a few times in the past, and I guess I can stand it, again.

God saves - but not now, and not here. His salvation is on layaway. Like all grifters, He asks you to pay now and take it on faith that you will receive later. Whereas women offer a different sort of salvation, more immediate and fulfilling. They don't put off their love for a distant, ill-defined eternity but make a gift of it in the here and now, frequently to those who deserve it least. So it was in my case. So it is for many. The devil and woman have been allies against God from the beginning.