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.

It’s easier to be a character in a story than the star of your own tragedy.

It's just that I'm fifteen, and I have this crazy idea I might actually have a life in front of me. I don't see how it's going to do me much good to believe that the world is over and this is just an epilogue.

It's important to know the past, but your survival depends on knowing the present.

Point is, people lie a lot. Sometimes out of habit. Not many people are good at telling the truth.

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

They held each other and wept as the night closed its fist around their tiny shelter, and the world below them seethed with killers both living and dead.