“So what if I don't learn algebra?''Someday schools will be open again,' Mom said. 'Things will be normal. You need to do your work now for when that happens.''That's never going to happen,' Jon said. 'And even if schools do open up somewhere, they're not going to open up here. There aren't enough people left.' 'We don't know how many people are like us, holed up, making do until times get better.''I bet whoever they are, they aren't studying algebra,' Jon said.”

“I wonder if I cry whether my tears would be gray.”

“One of the more gratifying things about guilt is that it makes us feel important.”

“Just in case the world ends tomorrow, we might as well enjoy today.”

“The only way you can be the best at something is to be the best you can be.”

“We're all alive. We're all health. These are the good times.”

“I never really thought about how when I look at the moon, it's the same moon as Shakespeare and Marie Antoinette and George Washington and Cleopatra looked at.”

“So we baked and sweated together. I like punching the dough. I told myself it was the moon and punched it senseless.”

“Every day we're one day closer to death. But there's no reason to rush into it.”

“Mom, is the world coming to an end?" Jonny asked, picking up the plate of cookies and ramming one into his mouth."No, it isn'T," Mom said, folding her lawn chair and carrying it to the front of the house. "And yes, you do have to go to school tomorrow.”

“I have scars. No one alive today doesn't. But Alex's scars have to be much deeper than mine.”