"The more chaotic the world, the greater the need for ritual."

““He’ll get a life sentence for the illegal trafficking alone and probably a death sentence for the people he killed along the way.” He sighed slightly. “I always did fancy happy endings.”

“It is jihad, Mr. Morgan, a particularly virulent, fundamentalist form of hatred.”

““No matter how you look at it,” Margo muttered, “when you get down to it, human beings aren’t really much better than killer plains apes, are they? Just a thin sugar-coating of civilization to make ’em look prettier.”

“Skeeter just couldn’t figure out what was so horrible about taking a good, long, clear-eyed look at one’s past and facing whatever one found in it. Making up the past to fit whatever idea some politically correct group wanted to pass off as reality this week seemed a lot more dangerous to him than facing brutal facts.”

“A tiny whisper at the back of her mind warned her to be wary of what one asked the gods for, lest they grant it.”

““Education,” he smiled, “is never a waste of time.”