Here is the boy, drowning.

Without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.

Stories don’t always have happy endings.

Yer the only friend I got, pigpiss... Ain't that the biggest tragedy you ever heard?

Life ain't fair. It ain't. Not never.

This is how we are protecting you, by getting you out.

Her accent's funny, different from mine, different from anyone in Prentisstown's. Her lips make different kinds of outlines for the letters, like they're swooping down on them from above, pushing them into shape, telling them what to say. In Prentisstown, everyone talks like they're sneaking up on their words, ready to club them from behind.