I don't think I'm going to be a pessimist when I grow up." He chuckled. "I never thought I was going to be one either, when I was your age. - Ali Shaw

"How did you get to be so fearless?" Adrien asked Hiroko. "I mean, I wish I could deal with all this as naturally as you." "My friend Carter used to say that the world keeps no secrets. Look it in the eye if you can. Everything is there to see." "Is that supposed to make it easier?" "You can look away if you want. Lots of people do. You can make up a whole pretend world to look at instead." Adrien hung his head. He supposed that was precisely his own method, although he wasn't sure that his pretend world was any less frightening than the real one.
If there was one thing Adrien Thomas had always known about himself, it was his limitations. It was not, deep down, woodcraft that he had truly sought to learn here. It was how to be a man who wasn't weak, and who was sure of his place in the world.

Adrien had always considered cider a crude drink, flavoured like a highway underpass. The cider was bitter and salty both, like sea air cheering the senses just as it stung them. He had a lot of thinking to do, and thinking was always less daunting with a glass in hand.

Look at you. Your folded arms. Your smug sneer. How do men like you get put in charge of the world, when you don't know the first thing about it?