"But the great accidental discovery was that Michael could absorb something more than stories from books...that they could lead him to something other than painful dreaming and wanting." (Chapter 2, p. 46).

"Not that we suffer guilt for what we do, for we believe it is morally right to control the birth of our young, but that we have uneasy dreams of all those little beings washed, unborn, into eternity? Or was it mere fear of the beings themselves who want to claim us - eternally free adolescents - and make us parents." (Chapter 2, p. 69).

"Once you've seen the man, you're done for." (Chapter 3, p. 77).

"'It's a legacy of ignorance and jealousy and mental sickness!'" (Chapter 3, p. 96)

"It was all a pattern, as surely as a spider web is a pattern, but a pattern does not imply a purpose. Patterns exist everywhere and purpose is at its safest...