"People tell me I’m pretty all the time, beautiful even. I’m not sure I see what they see. I think I’m more of a cute, average-looking girl. I’m slender but I do not believe most would say skinny. Not “hot-girl skinny,” at least. I have long legs that are toned but I think my thighs are too large and I do not have a thigh gap. My arms are kinda flabby and while I do have an hourglass figure I have always felt my butt is a little too big and my face is a bit too round."
— Zade, Chapter 0.
"Due to my dyslexia, I could write things perfectly—but I wrote them backwards. It wasn’t till I was nine almost ten I could write the proper way without a lot of thought."
— Zade, Chapter 0.
"The fluorescent lights showed off every angle of me as I stood there staring at myself, and all I could think was how white I looked, and I wished some parts of my body were different."
— Zade, Chapter 3.
"Mac could see Zade standing in nothing but her lace underwear and bra as Lil pulled a measuring tape around her narrow waist[. . .] Under the bright lights, Zade’s skin looked porcelain white. She was beautiful. She wasn’t supermodel hot but there was something about her that just made her stand out. Mac couldn’t quite put his finger on it but there was something there."
— Mac, Chapter 3.
"She may not have been my favorite person, but I certainly didn’t want her to die."
— Zade, Chapter 4.
"I didn't think it was a harsh story. I thought it was romantic and sweet."
— Zade, on the story of Scheherazade and her serial-wife-murderer husband, Chapter 4.
"In the south those types of undershirts are often called "wife beaters." It's a horrible name for anything really but especially a shirt."
— Zade,Chapter 6.
"My mom didn't name me 'Carrot Top,' you know"
— Carrot Top, Chapter 7.
"You’ve probably noticed your [spirit guides] before and just not known who they were. Your guides are the little voices that tell you to “slow down” or “buy bread” or “take notice of the cute guy in line in front of you”—all of those are direct communication from your guides or higher self. This is why a lot of people think of their guides as guardian angels, cause they are in a way, guardians angels with great advice."
— Zade, Chapter 8.
"Drew had always gotten along with everyone and all in all was a decent guy. He was about as vanilla looking as someone can get, with brown hair and brown eyes. He led a pretty average existence overall, and no one ever had any problems with him. The other guys tended to pick on Drew, though, because he was an easy target in a theater full of more-talented, more-experienced, and better-looking people, who all led far more exciting lives. Even so, Drew always seemed to be pretty content and—compared to anyone from the small town in Iowa he was from—he was leading the best life by far."
— Drew the irrelevant audio tech is introduced, Chapter 9.
"She is quite a catch, but we're keeping it light. She's the kind you want to marry, not just use to get laid. Not sure if I'm ready to give up my freedom just yet, but she'd be the girl to do it for, that's for sure," "
— Jackson, on Zade, Chapter 9.
"I had learned over the years that sometimes the cards insist you learn lessons, that is what each of our lives is about, learning lessons to become a better being—your soul can't evolve until you've learned whatever life lesson it is you need to learn."
— Zade, Chapter 11.
"I want to be you when I grow up!"
— Sara, Chapter 12.
"Anyhoo, Betty is a woman scorned, and she's finally realized that it meant nothing to you, and that she means nothing to you, and she can't handle that. She's decided if she can't have you then no one will. When you do your bullet trick on Sunday, she's going to switch out the shells for real ones, and when she shoots you in the chest, it's going to kill you."
— Dela, Chapter 17
"Tarot, if we go far enough back, actually comes from an ancient form of Judaism, which we can trace back to the kings of old—soothsayers are in the bible, and kings would not make moves without consulting one."
— Dela, Chapter 18.
