“Most people don't care who's in charge as long as someone is.”

“Peter." The fine hair along her spine rising, Vicky could feel the power in a name. This is who you are, it said. Come back to us.”

“Does he expect the flood to just move out of his way if he asks nicely?”

“He read disappointment at his response and wondered if she realized that she expected a certain amount of effusive sympathy from the people she told. Rejecting that sympathy made her feel strong, compensating for what she perceived as her weakness. He suspected that the disease was the first time she hadn't been able to make everything come out all right through the sheer determination that it would be.”

“Better the comfort of a lie than the absurdity of the truth.”

“All things are within the Circle. That is the very Center of what we believe. If all things are not enclosed, then there is no Circle.”

“Once a man began thinking with his body, intelligent decisions came few and far between.”

“Most people don't care who's in charge as long as someone is.”

“What goes on between a man and his missus is nobody's business”