"You never would get through to the end of being a father, no matter where you stored your mind or how many steps in the series you followed. Not even if you died" (Chapter 1, p.10).

"Fathering imposed an obligation that was more than your money, your body, or your time, a presence neither physical nor measurable by clocks: open-ended, eternal, and invisible, like the commitment of gravity to the stars" (Chapter 1, p. 10).

"Their value was indexed only to the sense of personal completeness, perfection of the soul, that would flood you when, at last, you filled the last gap on your checklist." (Chapter 1, p. 20).

"Mr. Jones was also, as far as Archy knew, the first person to use the term Brokeland to describe this neighborhood, the ragged fault where the urban plates of Berkeley and Oakland subducted. "Hello, Fifty-Eight" (Chapter 1, p. 35).

"Then he strapped himself into his escape...