“Tucker, please put him down," said Annie. "You're frightening Jackson.""He's not," said Jackson. "It's cool. I don't like that guy anyway. Punch him, Dad.”

“One thing about great art: it made you love people more, forgive them their petty transgressions. It worked in the way that religion was supposed to, if you thought about it.”

“Experience, then, was something that enabled you to do nothing with a clear conscience. Experience was an overrated quality.”

“Everyone disliked their partners at some time or another, she knew that. But shed spent her hours in the dark wondering whether shed ever liked him. Would it really have been so much worse to spend...”

“Of course Tucker Crowe was in pain when he made [the record], but he couldn't just march into a recording studio and start howling. He'd have sounded mad and pathetic. He had to calm the rage, tame...”

“Im still pretty sick about what Ive lost, but I only admit it to myself late at night, which is probably why Im not the best sleeper.”

“Sometimes two people have to fall apart, to realize how much they need to fall back together.”

“Good literature is one key to peace. When we stop reading each other, when we stop paying attention to each other's words and stories, we too easily oppose one another.”

“There is only one motive for writing a novel: to be published and read. To me there is no distinction between the mystery novel and the novel, only between good books and bad books. A good book tak...”