"Roy's strangeness and the strangeness of our life with him had, over the years, become ordinary to me." Chapter 1, pg.14

"Power can be enjoyed only when it is recognized and feared. Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it." Chapter 1, pg. 25

"Because I did not know who I was, any image of myself, no matter how grotesque, had power over me." Chapter 1, pg. 27

"These shows instructed us further in the faith that we were already beginning to hold: that victims are contemptible no matter how much people pretend otherwise; that it is more fun to be inside than outside, to be arrogant than to be kind, to be with a crowd than to be alone." Chapter 2, pg. 42

"He tried too hard. No eye is quicker to detect that kind of effort than the eye of a competitor who also happens to be a child...