“In the future if my mother tries to shame me with her disapproval, I will let her know in no uncertain terms that I reject her and all of her codependent baggage. I am Codependent No More.”
“Maybe careers aren’t something you can really plan for. They just sort of happen, like brown eyes or flat feet. I took one of those career aptitude tests last year, and it showed that I should be a flight attendant or a seamstress. Not a fashion designer or anything, mind you, but a sweatshop worker. Apparently stewardesses and sweatshop workers and I enjoy a lot of the same interests and activities.”
“If you are alive and conscious, you are probably codependent.”
“I am not a people person.”
“I think MacGregor might be a genius. Anyone so oblivious to the horror of the human world must be.”
“If you start looking up, they start asking questions.”
“Not being a big one for having friends, I had no idea what I was going to do with Aubrey, you know, to entertain him.”
“Well, at least I can spare myself the ordeal of a whole battery of personality tests. My personality is poor; that much is clear.”
“It’s not a good idea to let on about extreme happy feelings. People get ideas.”
“I may never recover. It was like an out-of-body experience. I’m an alien trying on human rituals.”
“Much as I usually dislike nice, positive people, I have to admit that Margaret isn’t bad.”
“I’m already in the late stages of advanced detachment where my mother is concerned. With a little practice I could feel that way about everyone.”
“I haven’t been that happy since I became conscious for the first time, you know, when I became aware of myself and got so uncomfortable and everything.”
“I don’t care about this stuff. I’m not even sure I’m a girl. I’m an eye in the sky. I am detached. I’m an idiot.”
“It seemed a little risky, enjoying something so… fun, but I couldn’t help it.”
“Phoenix song is magical: it is reputed to increase the courage of the pure of heart and to strike fear into the heart of the impure.”
“The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.”
“There's no such thing as civilization. The word just means the art of living in cities.”
“There's one way. Only one. Mine." Balthazar stepped closer, using every inch he had on Lucas, who was tall but not that tall. "Charity is a person. The same as you, the same as me."
"You and me aren't the same."
Balthazar cocked his head. "Then let's say the same as Bianca. Will that make you listen?"
"Bianca's no killer! She didn't have a choice about what she is."
"Guys, don't do this," I pleaded, but they paid no attention.
"A choice? You think we all get a choice?" Although Balthazar spoke softly, there was a roughness to his voice I'd never heard before. It sent chills down my spine. "Try being hunted down in the night. Try running as far and as fast as you can and finding out their faster. Try coming to in a stable, with your parents' dead bodies on the ground in front of you, your hands roped above your head and a dozen hungry vampires arguing with each other about who gets you next. See how much choice you have then."
Lucas just stared at him. Obviously he'd never imagined anything like that; neither had I.
Even more quietly, Balthazar continued, "Try watching your baby sister die, and then tell me that you wouldn't spend the rest of eternity trying to make up for it. When you've done all that, Lucas, then you can talk to me about choices. Until that time, tell me what I need to know and then shut your mouth.”
“When you are old and grey and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep”
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