“I thought of Shelley in the hospital, how she said sometimes sadness only looked like anger and judgment. Maybe fear did too.”

“Keep your eyes on the future, because that's where the answers are. It's where the hope is.”

“I started to sway Lexi again when I realized she was quiet. Waiting. Both of us paused on the cusp of the unknown. I couldn't go backward or even retrace my own steps, let alone Xanda's. I could on...”

“I thought of what pride would look like, a jowly old guy in a smoking jacket. Vanity was a tall, beautiful woman with a face like a mask. Envy was a treasure-hoarding dragon, dainty and diabolical....”

“Cut the ending. Revise the script. The man of her dreams is a girl.”

“Girls get screwed.Not that kind of screwed, what I mean is, they're always on the short end of things.The way things work, how guys feel great, but make girls feelcheap for doingexactly what they b...”

“Try patting them on the back or shoulder and telling them everything is going to be fine. Lots of times when girls cry, they don't want you to fix the problem, they just want to be consoled.”

“There is beauty in truth, even if it's painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defec...”

“One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.”

“Don't lies eventually lead to the truth? And don't all my stories, true or false, tend toward the same conclusion? Don't they all have the same meaning? So what does it matter whether they are true...”

“The women looked from one to the other, knowing what the men didnt know. We knew the heartbeat and interior graces, compensation for our own clumsiness; the beatitude as we renounced our bodies, ou...”

“The condom broke. I know how stupid that sounds. It's the reproductive version of the dog ate my homework.”

“After a good roll in the hay, when hes all peaceful and serene and he hasnt a worry or a care in the world, and the euphoric calm of release is drifting through his cerebrum, thats when you broadsi...”