“You been gone too long, Sula.

Not too long, but maybe too far.”

“When somebody walks out, it leaves a hole in you. Some people fill it up, the good and the bad, and get on that way. Some people leave it open, maybe long enough to heal, maybe too long, picking at it now and then so it doesn't heal all the way.”

“For a minute there it was really good. It was really, really good. Wasn't it good? Maybe really, really good things aren't meant to last for too long; maybe that's what makes them all the more sweet, the temporariness of them.”

“For her, this was a metaphor, he reminded himself. Though maybe he was a metaphor too, inside his head with the Black Gang. A metaphor gone metastatic.”

“Maybe I seem a little too clever sometimes… Maybe I'm too well prepared and I may sometimes be regarded as a little fault finding.”

“But you have to figure that if it’s too hard to hang on, then maybe you should let go.”

“Maybe my expectations for honesty are too high.”

“Maybe she'd been drinking too much of the super-sweet Mexican Coca-Cola they had down here. Or maybe she was just tired, alone, and far from home. Because somewhere in the brittle, concrete center of Azrael's dark heart, something was melting.”

“Maybe happiness too is a metaphor invented on a day of boredom”

“To quote the Tsalagi, you should never allow your yesterday to use up too much of today. The past is gone and tomorrow is at best a maybe. Live for this moment because it may be all you'll ever have.”