“What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? … I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something.”
“Do you know that it cost us less to recruit and use up a real snuff whore than it does to set up and run a virtual equivalent format? Real human flesh is cheaper than a machine. It’s the axiomatic truth of our times.”
“How shall I explain the dying that was done?
Shall I say that each one did the math, and wrote
The value of his days
Against the bloody margin, in an understated hand?”
“The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I’m not dead either. ”
“Seven pounds, nine shillings and sixpence turned out to be the value they’d put on Arthur’s life. I sat
alone at the kitchen table, and I think that was the moment I knew I’d never see my husband again.”
Essentially the story of a boy abandoned by his people, Toby Alone touches on several universal themes including social class, capitalism and big business, the need to protect our environment, and appreciating the value of each and every human being.