What matter the colour of the collar around a man's neck, if the chains linked to them were identical?

It is an extraordinary act of courage,' said Tulas Shorn, 'to come to know a stranger's pain.

I warn you all, hatred is finding fertile soil within me. And in your compassion, in your every good intention, you nurture it.

Destiny is a lie. Destiny is justification for atrocity. It is the means by which murderers armour themselves against reprimand. It is a word intended to stand in place of ethics, denying all moral context.

First in , Last out. Motto of the bridgeburners

Believe it or not, friendships are difficult to write in fiction. They can easily come across as forced, particularly if they involve too much explication and too many overt gestures of affection.

Survivors do not mourn together. They each mourn alone, even when in the same place. Grief is the most solitary of all feelings. Grief isolates, and every ritual, every gesture, every embrace, is a hopeless effort to break through that isolation. None of it works. The forms crumble and dissolve. To face death is to stand alone.