Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

"Mrs. Jenkins, who had disappeared to “freshen up,” at last made her grand entrance. She swept onto the patio like a cross between a parrot and a wedding cake."

"I attempted to explain and he attempted to understand, but the truth fell somewhere between us."

"“Why, we’ll do missionary work for it natcherly,” Drake said, “spreadin’ enlightenment to anybody too dumb to listen, until we have ultimately converted all those souls sufferin’ from excess wealth—” “Yep,” Kruger said. “We’ll give ’em a choice. They can convert from rich to poor or from alive to dead.”"

"You do comprehend, do you not, that symbolically is not the same as fillingly?"

"Here we were about to be sacrificed to something ancient and alien that looked like a giant lizard and had the zealousness of a Jesuit missionary and the scruples of a railway company lawyer. That beast was not going to be happy when it learned that its so-called advanced knowledge was outdated by several thousand years."

"While it was not bloodthirsty—for human blood anyway—it didn’t discourage bloodthirsty practices: its attitude was aloof, as befitted its station, the god who couldn’t be bothered with the petty problems of its worshipers."

"We must draw the line somewhere. Observance of good form is necessary to the orderly completion of lessons. Orderly completion of lessons leads to the orderly growth of society."

"I was about a foot farther down the wall when I heard a hoarse hacking and a slimy projectile slapped the back of my head. I whirled. Purdy’s camel regarded me with an expression similar to that I have seen on various churchwomen bent on wrecking one’s reputation—sanctimonious malice."

"But promises were being broken all around. Most of us in Nam were the children of the last war that was ever supposed to be fought anywhere in the world. All of the baby boys were promised that they would grow up and become successful and all of the baby girls were promised that someday their princes would come. Then along came the goddamn government and bingo, it sent the princes off to battle communism and issued them the right to hate anyone not in their unit. Then it sent them home in body bags, or with their handsome faces melted or blown away, their bodies prematurely aged with disease or terrible wounds, and their idealistic souls turned into sewers. And those were the survivors."

"Fortunately, he was the sort of person who, when he demanded an explanation, listened to it."

"William gave me a look that said it was too bad I was brain-damaged."

"When the ambush came, he was the one who knocked me down and threw himself on top of me, taking my share of the bullets and frags. Dying, his body twitched on top of me, and I hesitate to say it, but it was as if he were making love to me. And I guess he was, at that."