“We stand a professional distance apart, as if I cant feel his pain screaming in my head. Mine amplifies his; they share a joint soundthat of glass breakinguntil they swell to a crescendo that deafens.”

“More than most, I know the pain of surviving.”

“What you said about the sweetest pain? That fits us.”

“So I make no effort to hide my pain. I dont ever put it all on display like thisbut for today and all the rest of the days of the trial, I must. My every flinch, every flicker of pain, will bemagni...”

“. . . and I dont expect him to suborn his life into mine any more than I would change my dreams for him. Were not one soul, one being, however much we love each other.”

“For I need this scar over my heart to remind me. Crazy as it sounds, if I can bear the wound on my body, it lessens what I must carry on my soul. How he knew that about me, I cannot fathom.”

“We are on strike, we, the men of the mind.We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. We are on strike against the dogma ...”

“If only it were possible to love without injury fidelity isnt enough: I had been faithful to Anne and yet I had injured her. The hurt is in the act of possession: we are too small in mind and body...”

“She looks at the swings, and I can see shes imagining what theyd look like if the kids werent there. The guilt of this holds her down momentarily. It appears to be there constantly. Never far away,...”

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.”

“But you have to sacrifice yourself for YOURSELF, too.”

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.”