There was pain, but there was also joy. It was in the tension between the two that life happened. Imperfect as it was, this world was real. Illusion was no substitute. I'd rather live a hard life of fact than a sweet life of lies.

I'd learned a thing or two. Hope strengthens. Fear kills.

I love music because it's so fecking brilliant. Music is math, and math is the structure of everything and pretty much perfect.

I want you to go to the Ancient Languages Department at Trinity College tomorrow morning, Ms.Lane.

You believe in God? Dude. Only God could have created physics.

I can smell you, Ms. Lane," he said, even more softly. "The only blood on you is from your veins, not your womb." My head whipped to the left and I stared at him. Ok, that was one of the more disturbing things he'd ever said to me.

He'd surely been spawned by some cataclysmic event of nature, not born.