War is like a monster," he says, almost to himself. "War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows." He's looking at me now. "And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.

There's always beauty, if you know where to look.

We are the choices we make. And have to make. We aren’t anything else.

People say they want freedom, but what they really want is freedom from worry. If I take care of their problems, they don't mind being told what to do.

We all fall but that's not what matters. What matters is picking yourself up again.

Shout for libraries. Shout for the young readers who use them.

I was born into all that, all that mess, the over-crowded swamp and the over-crowded sematary and the not-crowded-enough town, so I don’t remember nothing, don’t remember a world without Noise. My pa died of sickness before I was born and then my ma died, of course, no surprises there. Ben and Cillian took me in, raised me. Ben says my ma was the last of the women but everyone says that about everyone’s ma. Ben may not be lying, he believes it’s true, but who knows?