[T]he astonishing purity of pain, how it will not be mixed with any other sensation.

You know, there's something heartsick about parties like this. Look at us. We're all pretending to be smart, as if intelligence were the cure for our anguish.

Every relationship has at least one really good day. What I mean is, no matter how sour things go, there's always that day. That day is always in your possession. That's the day you remember. You get old and you think: well, at least I had that day. It happened once. You think all the variables might just line up again. But they don't. Not always. I once talked to a woman who said, "Yeah, that's the day we had an angel around.

You are a real find and you keep me satisfied, up to a point. After all, I'm a malcontent and you can't change that.

In truth, there are only two realities: the one for people who are in love or love each other, and the one for people who are standing outside all that.

You think that what I've told you is an anecdote. But really it isn't. It's my whole life. It's the only story I have.

Before, I was always trying to make my relationships work by means of willpower and forced affability. This time I didn't have to strive for anything. A quality of ease spread over us.