You can ruin anything if you focus at it.

I didn’t mind the quiet stretches. It was like we were trying out the idea of being side by side.

…kissing George was a little like rolling in caramel after spending years surviving off rice sticks.

Glen Hirshberg's stories are haunting, absolutely, but not only because of the content -- the stories themselves haunt, they stick around, they linger, inhabiting a little corner of the reader's brain and resurfacing to evoke mystery or sadness or longing. It's a pleasure to dive into Hirshberg's storytelling skills in American Morons.

I was with them for all of it, but more like an echo than a participant.

You're the perfect girl', he said, rubbing his chin. 'You expect nothing.

My genes, my love, are rubber bands and rope; make yourself a structure you can live inside. Amen." — Aimee Bender (Willful Creatures: Stories)