“Anger was simple, self-sustaining as a cactus. You couldn't look too closely at it, lest the spines get you in the eye.”

“You need one person who knows you... Just one person you can't fool, even when you fool yourself.”

“But that was the least of it. He knew the worst of her, and that was better.”

“The best lies were the simplest and made the most sense, in the mind and in the mouth.”

“Grace hated lying, got no joy from it, and this was how she knew she wasn't pathological.”

“The universe would give you whatever you wanted if you twisted its arm hard enough.”

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it sure makes the rest of you lonely.”

“For Beatrice, when we first met, I was lonely, and you were pretty.Now I am pretty lonely.”

“I missed him so much that it felt like a physical pain in the area below my ribs. I opened my mouth to accommodate it. I put my hand to it. A hollow, aching, piercing place.”