“The sound of the pages turning was the sound of magic. The dry liquid feel of paper under fingertips was what magic felt like.”

“Any subject we exclude from fiction will drop from our culture's memory.”

“...real loneliness is having no one to miss. Think yourself lucky you've known something worth missing.”

“It was the word 'late' that did it. Such a stupid word to use of the dead, implying that they would be with us today if they hadn't happened to be delayed in traffic somewhere...”

“Jo claimed that the reason people survived breakups was that within days of the amputation, Mother Nature started reminding you of what you had been doing without, what could have been better, all ...”

“And it did me no good to recall particular conversations (if indeed these were particular conversations I was remembering so vividly, rather than inventions of my uneasy brain). Remembering clarifi...”

“Everybody's damaged by something.”

“Shes wild, unpredictable and dangerous as hell. Not just to my sanity, but to my health. Shes the kind of girl you know youll want forever with and forever will still not be enough. But shes not th...”

“Dont fall in love with me, She whispered harshly, a sob catching in her throat. I know you probably think Im egotistical saying this, but I need your promise that you wont do that. If you want to s...”

“Trying to please everybody is what you'll soon get tired of, because as time goes on, those you're pleasing will get tired of you.”

“Nobody does nothing. Everybody does something, sometimes nothing is something in the idle man's world.”

“Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When hes done good and made things easy for everybody? That aint the time at all. Its when hes at his lowestand he cant believe in hi...”

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

“If I am going to be drownedif I am going to be drownedif I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and t...”

“I'm an Earth ecstatic, and my creed is simple: All life is sacred, life loves life, and we are capable of improving our behavior toward one another. As basic as that is, for me it's also tonic and ...”