“If my years as a shatterling had taught me anything, it was that not all questions had answers. Societies had reduced themselves to radioactive dust because they could not accept that single unpalatable truth.”

“Years of secret suffering had taught me superhuman self-control.”

“It seemed, at least, that they had not taught the boy to lie. But they had not taught him to know truth from lies.”

“The future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything.”

“Sophie's hard first question to the cards had not, precisely, gone without an answer, it had been transmuted into questions about the question. It had branched and rooted like a tree, growing questions like buds, and then at some moment all the questions had become one question: what tree is this?”

“All of them had been so tested and retested that they had acquired considerable skill in answering test questions the way the examiners wanted them answered.”

“Trump’s lies will linger for years, poisoning the atmosphere like radioactive dust.”

“That night my parents told me what my cousin had suggested. I said no, absolutely not! I turned and walked away as fast as I could. My parents really had no idea how much it had hurt me all these years to go to school. I was done with all book learning.”

“My father taught me that one of the most important abilities in life is to be able to take the pain and persevere, and for years this lesson had served me well.”

“Life would be unbearably dull if we had answers to all our questions.”