Are you sure you can't dematerialize? Not even a little?" "I'm sure.

For a split second, he had looked almost like my Alex again.

And how she looked at me like I could save her from everything bad in he world. This was my secret: she was the one who saved me

It's going to be okay. Words that mean nothing. really, just sounds intoned into vastness and darkness, little scrabbling attempts to latch on to something when we're falling.

That's the easy thing about falling: there is only one choice after that.

I was glad when the Invalids were executed. Some people complained that lethal injection was too humane for convicted terrorists, but I thought it sent a powerful message: We are not the evil ones. We are reasonable and compassionate. We stand for fairness, structure, and organization. It’s the other side, the uncureds, who bring the chaos.

A room full of words that are nearly the truth but not quite, each note fluttering off the steam of its rose like a broken butterfly wing.