Going Bovine Transformation Quotes

"Have you ever done anything for anybody else just because you actually cared about them? No. You probably don't even know what that feels like."

This is the part where I jump in and say, Why, that's not true. I care about all sorts of people. And the environment. And endangered farm animals. Secretly, I've been working up a plan to give an endangered farm animal to every person I care about just so they will know the depth of my feelings. But the truth is, she's got me on this point. Chet's not the angel that she thinks he is, but I'm in no position to say s*** about anybody. (8.94-95)

Eubie puts a hand to his chest and staggers backward in mock shock. "Cam-run? Did you just ask a personal question? Did you express an interest in your fellow man, in someone other than your own miserable self? Lord, Jesus! It's a miracle—that's what it is!" (10.15)

They finally ask me about myself. Usually I would edit my story, say as little as possible so I could stay in hiding mode. It's been my M.O. my entire life—living just below the radar. But tonight, I'm so tired I just tell them everything. It feels good not to hold myself in check. (28.50)

"Thank you," he says. "You're most kind." No one has ever called me kind. Selfish. Weird. Unreliable. Frustrating. But not kind. I'm not sure what to say. (28.147)

I hear my mom's familiar message—"Hi, this is Mary Smith. I can't come to the phone right now because I've probably been carried away by griffins. But if you leave your name and number, I'll get back to you just as quickly as Hermes would." There's a pause, and then she says to me, "Cameron, did I do that right? Oh! We're still recording! Oh my goodness…," and her laugh is cut off.

That message used to annoy the crap out of me—my mom being all spacey and mom-ish. But right now, hearing her voice is the best thing in the world, like waking up and realizing there's no school. There's a beep, and my stomach tightens. "Um, hi, Mom. It's me. Cameron. Well, you probably figured that part out," I say, sounding like the biggest dork. "Anyway, I'm okay. I want you to know that first. And, you know what? Keep grading those moronic English Comp 101 papers, because otherwise, we're all gonna be getting our gas at the K-W-I-K S-E-R-V and drinking our E-X-P-R-E-S-S-Os at the Konstant Kettle, two K's. Seriously, the world needs you. You matter. A lot. Okay, I gotta go, 'cause the griffins are here and you know how much they hate to wait. Love you," I add quickly, and hang up. (29.46-47)

"He loved her very much. She inspired his work. He used to say, 'There is no meaning but what we assign to life, and she is my meaning.'" […]

"After his wife's death, Dr. X was a changed man," Dr. M says with a heavy sigh. "He said what did it matter if we could find the Theory of Everything Plus a Little Bit More, measure gravitrons, or prove evidence of other worlds if we could not stop such suffering in our own—the plague of the unpredictable, the terrible, the futile."

"He wanted to use the Infinity Collider not to ask questions, but to search for an answer," Dr. O says softly. "He wanted to search time and space so that he might find a way to stop death." (34. 164-166)

Dad makes all the decisions, but he can't make this one. Finally, Mom's hand comes to rest on top of Dad's. She takes the card. In the set of her shoulders there's a grim determination I've never seen before. "It's okay," she says. "I'll do it." (37.15)

The thing is, I can't stop obsessing over what Dulcie told me about Keith stepping on that land mine. Why do I care? He's a jerk. A week ago, I would have said, hey, natural selection, man. Stupid people, out of the gene pool. But now I know that in addition to being a boneheaded jerk, Keith also has a mom and a dad and two younger sisters he takes out for ice cream whenever he gets home. I know he sings goofy, off-key songs and has a habit of kissing the top of your head when he's really drunk. (38.4)

We're colliding, making our own universe, something new and unnamed and full of every possibility. It's so intense, this happiness—there is no escape velocity from this kind of feeling. And for once, I'm not looking for a way out. (43.113)

"I hear this rrrrrnnnnn-nnnn-nnnnn, and I think, Oh s***, man. They are revving this baby up. I started thinking about all the things I've never done, like surf or get a tattoo or tell my mom off. Mostly I think that I've never gotten to be myself. Ever. I hear that rrrrnnnn-nnn-NNNN-nnn near my ear, and I vowed to myself, Dude, if you make it out of this alive, you are going to do it, whatever it is. The big guys wrap their paws around my throat. Parker pulls out a razor, lowers it to my head. And thirty seconds later, I'm a Mohawk man." (44.46)