“Ga thought about reminding the Dear Leader that they lived in a land where people had been trained to accept any reality presented to them.”

“Today, tomorrow," she said. "A day is nothing. A day is just a match you strike after the ten thousand matches before it have gone out.”

“Use your imagination only on the future, never on the present or the past.”

“[I]n communism, you'd threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.”

“Ga thought of how difficult it was to come to see the lies you told yourself, the ones that allowed you to function and move forward.”

“This was the face that Ga had shown the world, that of a boy who had swallowed the things that had happened to him, but who wouldnt understand what they meant for a long, long time.”

“But who can remember pain, once its over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.”

“I know what you are learning to endure. There is nothing to be done. Make sure nothing is wasted. Take notes. Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In lif...”

“My mind, I know, I can prove, hovers on hummingbird wings. It hovers and it churns. And when it's operating at full thrust, the churning does not stop. The machines do not rest, the systems rarely ...”