"All at once, I liked her. She was a flat, sure, and she was spoiled, for damn sure, but she'd done her best to think things through, and she was trying hard not to make the same mistake twice. Some days you got to accept that's all you can do, and it takes guts to admit that's the kind of day you're up against" (p. 12).

"I had known people, in Pharaohlight, who had insisted that phoenix was tasteless, but they were wrong. It tasted like tears" (p. 17).

"I knew we had to get onto the beach before it got me. We had to, and so I yelled terrible things at my brother, some things Keeper'd called me one time, and I'd sworn, crying to myself in the corner, that I'd never say them to nobody else, no matter what. And here I was, saying them to Felix, who...