No eleven-year-old has any real grasp of death. He doesn't have any real concept of other people--that they feel pain, even that they exist. And his own adult future isn't real to him, either. Makes it that much easier to throw away.

Only a country that feels invulnerable can afford political turmoil as entertainment.

I was mortified by the prospect of becoming hopelessly trapped in someone else's story.

...some people coddle their own afflictions the way others spoil small pedigreed dogs with cans of pate.

In fact, it's become politically important to offend people, because we have to fight back against this notion that being offensive should be against the law or something, and that everyone supposedly deserves "respect" for their often dopy views.

Though surely to avoid attachments for fear of loss is to avoid life.

That boy hardly needed a mask when his naked face was already impenetrable.