Trouble is just like love, after all; it comes in unannounced and takes over before you've had a chance to reconsider, or even to think.

The only people out at this hour were ones who couldn't sleep,those haunted by one thing or another:love thwarted, love lost, love thrown away. They were the sort of people who didn't want to be noticed, who wanted to slip through shadows, be alone with their despair.

Never look at other people's bad fortune,' my mother said. 'If you do, it will come back to find you instead of its rightful owner.

Before she realized he was next to her, he had placed his hands over hers on the countertop, then hooped his fingers through hers. Gretel looked up at him, so startled she might as well have been shot. 'I just wanted to wake you up', he said. Which is exactly what he did. One look at him and her heart was racing. One look, and whatever had been before was all over.

Feel lucky for what you have when you have it. Isn't that the point? Happily ever after doesn't mean happy forever.

I read "The Group" by Mary McCarthy. It had tons of sex in it, or so I thought at the time.

Being an outsider is the one thing we all have in common.