“Standing there small among the boxes of Kandy Kakes that rose like brownish cartoon cliffs around him, he resembled the videos I'd seen of sea lions floating angelically among the kelp, black bodie...”

“Maybe that was the secret to happiness, I thought, being free of the responsibility of yourself.”

“I did have a friend,' I said.'And your friend trespassed upon you,' the Wally replied.”

“He was so far away now, or maybe he just looked distant because we were imaging different things for our future.”

“Tell me, is there someone in your life who's been sharing your life too closely? A friend or a loved one? Is there someone who's been taking up your time and not giving any of it back?”

“I had seen the few things I cared about forget me seamlessly. I had seen the life I never really fit into heal up around my absence like a wound scabbed over.”

“Standing there small among the boxes of Kandy Kakes that rose like brownish cartoon cliffs around him, he resembled the videos I'd seen of sea lions floating angelically among the kelp, black bodie...”

“Maybe that was the secret to happiness, I thought, being free of the responsibility of yourself.”

“I did have a friend,' I said.'And your friend trespassed upon you,' the Wally replied.”

“I wish my whispers are heard and requited as a storm... Because, the storm is that keeps me alive!”

“To have no desire is such a load of bullshit--forgive me for being so blunt. To have no passion in one's life is a cop-out for cowards.”

“I would have gone to bed with him that night. If he had asked. If he had come and kissed me. Not for his sake, but for being alive's.”

“The life of my people is to remember forever; each head granary is full. The life of your people is to forget: your thing granaries ("museums"), and not yourselves, are full.”

“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”

“The living sinners on deadly ground.”