The short stories tend to be a journalistic gathering of anecdotes that are put together to make something larger.

All you can do is hope for a pattern to emerge, and sometimes it never does. Still, with a plan, you only get the best you can imagine. I'd always hoped for something better than that.

I am not loved. I am not a beautiful soul. I am not a good-natured, giving person. I am not anybody's savior.

And the more she could imagine this island, the less she liked the real world. The more she could imagine the people, the less she liked any real people.

At first, the new owner pretends he never looked at the living room floor.

Our generation has had no Great Depression, no Great War. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.

He was the kind of boy any young girl should date while she's still able to recover.