“Sometimes, when it seems like the pain is never going to end, I wish Id gotten a different suite of magical talents from my mother. Like the power to avoid situations that end with me willingly jam...”

“Then he looked back to me, and smiled. It was a terrible expression, filled with edges, and with knives.”

“I just feel like were starting to interfere on a level thats sort of . . . extreme. But thats what heroes do.”

“I just wasnt sure it was a good idea to approach heroing the way Id always approached detecting. Can you really shake the world until justice falls out?”

“Just thinking about how long its been since Ive managed to wind up covered in blood, I said. Its like a new trend. A blood-free trend.”

“Even when she slept, she tossed and turned and squirmed, like she was secretly a hurricane forced into a girl-body and told to exist as best she could among people who had no idea what it meant to ...”

“I built an idea in my head of the hero I wanted to be, a grab bag of traits from heroes, villains, and side characters. I did not have book role models, I had book blueprints.But there remained a h...”

“I am not always good and noble. I am the hero of this story, but I have my off moments.”

“Ethan: "You think I'm a hero?"Beth: "Yes."Ethan: "But lousy husband material?" Like that really mattered to him.Beth: "Don't sweat it. So was Superman.”