“A life was a story, and a story was nothing more than a promise that something bad would happen. It was a promise that people would desire and want and ache and burn, but it was not a promise that ...”

“Youll never let me go, will you? Giving me the space and freedom I want isnt your idea of love, is it? Youd rather cut me deep on earth to spare me pain in hell, whereas I think hell is right here.”

“The world he had left was not ready for his return, or rather, he was not ready to return to the world he had left.”

“I did exactly what you told me to do, Nick. Didn't you tell me to just write the stupid book already? And that even doing the worst thing on the planet had to count for something? Well I can't thin...”

“Oh God, what do we do?""Do?" Levi said, looking oddly triumphant, like his plans for the night had finally materialized, Like he had been hoping for some disaster like this to happen so he didn't h...”

“For the good that I would: I do not, but the evil which I would not, I do.”

“What was it like? Hell if I know. But next time someone asks.... I'll answer crooked, and I'll answer long. And when they get confused or angry, I'll smile. Finally, I'll think. Someone who underst...”

“Youll never let me go, will you? Giving me the space and freedom I want isnt your idea of love, is it? Youd rather cut me deep on earth to spare me pain in hell, whereas I think hell is right here.”

“There is no way to imagine what it feels like to be shot at. I will never be with him when he is the most scared.”

“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,...”

“Ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. That was the whole idea, right? Thats why we went. I am reluctant to let that fact disappear down the memory hole, because if as the war ends, or at lea...”

“Saddam's politics was the politics of the thug, of violence from the outset of his reign. Realism suggests that some people are not going to be tractable in response to purely peaceable overtures. ...”

“To stay alive, you have to keep moving. Running, relocating, driving, doing everything in your power to stay in motion and make it to safety.”