When you kill a thing, it makes you a little less man, a little more animal. Now we try to find the balance between them. That’s all life is.[to John]
There’s no such thing as freedom. Don’t let anyone tell you there is. There’s laws, there’s rules, there’s customs, responsibilities everywhere. The more people you cram together, the more rules there’ll be.[to Elsa]
There are few things that focus one solely on the present. Terror is one. Grief another. But nothing washes the world away like the lips of another. Seems an odd custom, strangers putting their mouths together and exploring each other with their tongues. When you think about it, kissing makes no sense at all.
The only rules you need to follow are the ones in your heart.[to Elsa]
The meanest thing you can do to yourself is hate somebody else.[to Elsa]
The dress felt like a prison built just for me, choking me by the neck. Digging into my underarms. Flattening my breasts against my rib cage. It disguises everything that makes me a woman from the glare of jealous women and rapacious men. As if their lack of self-esteem or will power should be my only concern. I will never live in that world again where the weak would rather guilt the strong than become strong themselves. No, I will stay in this world. This world doesn’t care what the weak want. This world eats the weak.
The dirty hand of man can go unnoticed in the city. Because his dirty hand made the city. But in this place, where innocence is a mineral in the soil, the filth of our touch is an apocalypse.
That’s a child’s goal. A woman’s goal is to never ride a train again because she has a home she never wants to leave.[Elsa Dutton: Someday I’ll only ride in the front of the train.]
Tears we can’t control, sobs and weeps are little surrenders, and I will surrender nothing to the pain. Tears may flow, but I will not weep. I am the wife of a warrior now. Which is to say, I am a warrior. And warriors don’t cry.
Someday, if you’re lucky to find a man or simply find a man who is extremely unlucky, you will learn coffee is a welcome treat after a hard ride.[to Mary Abel]
Our wagon drive is over. Where we bury her is where we stay. That is our home.[to Margaret, about Elsa]
No matter how much we love it, the land will never love us back.
