“There was less than Id expected in the rainy-day fund that Mom had kept in the bottom of an underwear drawer in a panty hose egg labeled DEAD SPIDERS. As if I hadnt always known it was there. As if...”

“We are humanity, the banner read. Wrong. Were pale reflections of it, weak shadows, distant echoes.”

“We all know interspecies romance is weird.”

“Depression isn't a war you win. It's a battle you fight every day. You never stop, never get to rest. It's one bloody fray after another.”

“But suppose the endlessly dead were to wake in us some emblem:they might point to the catkins hangingfrom the empty hazel trees, or direct us to the raindescending on black earth in early spring. ...”

“Life is but a dream for the dead.”

“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”