“ Im going to be a writer, he reminded Milo. And you wont need literature? Ill write my own.”

“By its nature a relationship was not an accomplishment. It was just a connection that happened to exist, for as long as it did exist.”

“Since he had given up men he had taken up geography. He visited a new sight or a new neighborhood nearly every weekend.”

“A year ago he had been in America. Two years ago he had been straight. Tonight he was underground, with the remains of the bogey man, lit by the torches of the children who had killed him.”

“I suppose it does come with a certain responsibility.What does? asked Annie.The magnificence of my person.Gah.”

“Crisis the midwife of capitalism. The advisers arrive and say, My god, they have no predatory class here. It is an emergency! We must create one immediately. Let us arrange to give everything to a...”

“Don"t gaze too hard at your belly button Or you will unexpectedly hit rock bottom!”

“But what are they?” Annie asked.“An omphalos, probably,” said Jacob.“A what, dear?” Melinda asked.“A bellybutton of the world.”“I didn’t know it had one.”

“They had killed themselves over our dying forests, over manatees maimed by propellers as they surfaced to drink from garden hoses; they had killed themselves at the sight of used tires stacked high...”

“The world seemed to shimmer a little at the edges.”

“If we cannot accept the importance of the world, which considers itself important, if in the midst of that world our laughter finds no echo, we have but one choice: to take the world as a whole and...”