“I think,' Hoa says slowly, 'that if you love someone, you don't get to choose how they love you back.”

“Because that is how one survives eternity, I say, or even a few years. Friends. Family. Moving with them. Moving forward.”

“But for a society build on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.”

“Syl Anagist's assimilation of the world had been over a century before I was ever made; all cities were Syl Anagist. All languages had become Sylanagistine. But there were none so frightened, or so...”

“How can we prepare for the future if we wont acknowledge the past?”

“She has seen him fight his own brutal nature, and the Earth itself, in order to be the parent she needs. He has helped her learn to love herself for what she is.”

“It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.”

“It didn't matter that there was a war on our doorstep. She had things to do, places to be.”

“Stranger inside me, when you are born, I will give youa closed book and ask you never to read it, never rest, never forgive a man who wants to save you.”