I cry for everything I abandoned and because I, too, have been left behind -- by Alex, by my mom, by time that has cut through our worlds and separated us.

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.

I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up.

I know what the problem is, of course. The disorientation, the distraction, the difficulty focusing - all classic Phase One signs of deliria. But I don't care. If pneumonia felt this good I'd stand out in the snow in the winter with bare feet and no coat, or march into the hospital and kiss pneumonia patients

It won't matter if nobody ever thinks I'm pretty (although sometimes I wish, just for a second, that somebody would)

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

We can never understand. We can only try, fumbling our way through the tunneled places, reaching for light.