Any old horse will run when it's whipped, but only fast enough to avoid the whipping," Hilo said. "Racehorses, though, they run because they look at the horse on their left, they look at the one on their right, and they think, No way am I second to these fuckers.

The possibility of death was like the weather—you could make attempts to predict it, but you would likely be wrong, and no one would change their most important plans due to threat of rain.

In a war, you wield every weapon you have, including words. Especially words.

Expectations are a funny thing,” Wen said. “When you’re born with them, you resent them, fight against them. When you’ve never been given any, you feel the lack of them your whole life.

We're getting into a dangerous game, Hilo.""You have to go where your enemies are," Hilo said. "And then further.

The possibility of death was like the weather - you could make attempts to predict it, but you would likely be wrong, and no one would change their most important plans due to the threat of rain.

True love, Hilo mused, was sensual and euphoric, but also painful and tyrannical, demanding obedience.

He insists he loves me too much to let me get involved in the war in any way … and I love him too much to obey.

You didn't need to speak sweetly and offer patronage at every turn to these people. You had to be honest with them and show that they had more to gain from your friendship than your enmity.

Sometimes, Andy, the people you think you can count on, they let you down in a bad way, and that's hard to take. But for the most part, you give a man something to live up to, you tell him he can be more than he is now, more than other people think he'll ever be, and he'll try his godsdamned best to make it true.