“I was getting an A for work. But not for talent. The story of my life.”

“I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone's hand.”

“How could I have ever been ashamed of loving Dante Quintana?”

“Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.”

“Summertime. It was a song. It was a season. I wondered if that season would ever live inside of me.”

“I think you love him more than you can bear.”

“How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up. It's sad, really.”

“Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.”

“What a sad story, I thought for so long. Not that I now think it was happy. But I think it is true, and thus the question of whether it is sad or happy has no meaning whatever.”