“Another thing about Oscar is that he wasnt afraid of anyone. And he always made up his own mind, no matter what other people said. Theyre two of the best things I remember about him now.He wasnt ju...”

“Oscar had a straightforward, dimpled, happy smile. It was one of the hundreds of great things about him.And after that we were best friends. It had been as simple and inevitable as the striking of ...”

“What am I going to do without you, Oscar?Youll be fine, I answered. You could probably do some time away from me. Im a pain in the neck. Youre always saying so.Youre right, she said. Itll be great ...”

“I dont remember now who took the photo of us, but Ive had it in my room for years. Were leaning out of our windows and were laughing at each other with joyfulness purer than anything to do with the...”

“I know what you might be thinking here on your own, but those thoughts wont last for ever, I said. You wont always feel like this. This will pass. Homer will be here for you, and the sun will rise ...”

“Id never have predicted I would lose touch with him before, that is, I did. I thought I had my reasons. But it turns out that they werent good reasons. It turns out that you should never lose cont...”

“Suicide. It's something I've been thinking about. Not too seriously, but I have been thinking about it. That's the note. Word for word. And I know it's word for word because I wrote it dozens of ti...”

“You can think about killing yourself a thousand times a day and each time it gets just a little bit more real. But the day you wake up and know beyond the shadow of a doubt you are going to go thro...”

“Suicide is not a choice, it is what is left when everything else fails.”

“July 24, 6:03 A.M.The laundry was warm and the rafters were firm, and Michael Holzapfel jumped from the chair as if it were a cliff...Michael Holzapfel knew what he was doing. He killed himself for...”

“A book is a suicide postponed.”

“How much can you really trust the promise of a suicidal father?”