How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"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)
Cameron seems to think it is easier to consistently disappoint people in the hopes that others will eventually set the bar so low for him that even disappointment isn't possible, but it's not working. Now that he's letting himself relax a bit, he is starting to see that it's not so bad having people respond positively to him.
Quote #5
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)
Holy Shmoop, did Cameron really just say such nice things? He misses his mom so he actually calls her to tell her that he loves her and appreciates what she does, and then he cracks a lame joke that she will get a kick out of. Who is this kid?
Quote #6
"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)
Death can really change people, and not always for the better. Dr. X is consumed with grief from his wife's death and because of this becomes a twisted shadow of what he once was.