God is not attracted to mountaintops or church steeples. God is drawn to suffering, and the dark places it surfaces, which is why sharing pain freely feels very much like love, and may be the same thing. (207)

The good guys had to operate on a higher level than the killers--just for society to keep track of who was who.

Most children would rather preserve the fantasy of a loving connection with their fathers and mothers, at all costs, even if it costs them their self-esteem. When you're three or seven years old, it's less frightening to think of yourself as an unlovable, disappointing screwup than to recognize the fact that you're living with a monster.

Maybe the trying is the thing. Maybe it doesn't get better than that. Maybe you never quite get there. And maybe that's okay.

The bad things don't seem to happen to bad people.' That's because they already did. There's no original evil left in the world.

There's no original evil left in the world. Everyone's just recycling pain. (257)

Deep down, everyone wants the truth.