Let us quickly be finished with the business of dying, to save the trouble of making dinner. - Tim Powers

Terracotta says people can’t help what they do, any more than a rock rolling down a hill can. The rock might think it has a choice about rolling left or right, just like people think they choose what they do, but really it’s all just physics.

Did he say who he was?" asked Scott.
"I asked him," said Ariel. "He sort of laughed and said he was between names.

All wrong. The words seemed in this moment to describe Hale’s whole life.