Adulthood can do the most horrific things to the best of people.

He's become like that briefcase in the ground-full of gems yet void of light, so nothing sparkles, nothing shines.

I'm tired of eating your family's lousy, tasteless recipes," Dad said. "Tasteless recipes? My grandmother's rolling in her grave!" "It's from indigestion.

Which is worse, Risa often wondered, to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make then go away before they were even born

I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless.

Teenage rebellion is for suburban schoolchildren. Get over it.

does a sick society get so used to its illness that it can't remember being well? what if the memory is too dangerous for the people who like things the way they are?