And there's no better way to thaw a face, as it turns out, than with another face.

You have only to begin, Lir. Mercy breeds mercy as slaughter breeds slaughter. We can’t expect the world to be better than we make it.

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them. And its snap split the world in two.

Bitter, bitter, this desolation of angels.

I shudder to think. I might wear lace collars and laugh flower petals and pearls. People might try to pat me. I see them think it. My height triggers the puppy-kitten reflex- Must touch-and I've found that since you can't electrify yourself like a fence, the next best thing is to have murderer's eyes.

It’s like losing gravity and falling into space – the moment of pitching headlong when the endlessness of space asserts itself and there is no more down, only an eternity of up, and you realize you can fall forever and never run out of stars.

How could you tell if your instincts were just hope in disguise, and if your hope was really desperation parading as possibility?