Hope is something really tough and tenacious you have to give up. It’s an addiction to break.

Why is it you feel like a dope if you laugh alone, but that's usually how you end up crying?

Years of living in the hope that what you'll get will be better than what you have. Years of looking and feeling worse in the hope that you might look better.

The truth is, every son raised by a single mom is pretty much born married. I don't know, but until your mom dies it seems like all the other women in your life can never be more than just your mistress.

After you hear even the shortest great story, it should fill you with a little bit of fear.

Does it hurt very much to die? Well, sweetheart, yes, but it hurts a lot more to keep living.

I didn't use anybody's story. I used the context and the structure of the situation. People were so, so desperate to tell their story and begin to digest their experience - like turning it into a story - that after the fist few weeks I could go with a pad and pencil and take notes. People didn't seem at all bothered by that.