She wept for the hurt that he owned, a hurt she could never hope to remove.

How do you know that?" "Because,"Chong said with raised eyebrows,"when you open those things called 'books',there are words as well as pictures.Sometimes the words tell you stuff.

Rage was sometimes a useful ally in the heat of a fight, but it was a trickster. It made everything seem possible.

There are moments that define a person's whole life. Moments in which everything they are and everything they may possibly become balance on a single decision. Life and death, hope and despair, victory and failure teeter precariously on the decision made at that moment. These are moments ungoverned by happenstance, untroubled by luck. These are the moments in which a person earns the right to live, or not.

Sometimes shame is a more powerful engine than rage.

My whole body is a lethal weapon, you know. I know more ways to kill you than you know how to die.

Suffering is easier to endure when shared.