It's pathetic how we can't live with the things we can't understand. How we need everything labeled and explained and deconstructed.

You gain power by pretending to be weak. By contrast, you make people feel strong. You save people by letting them save you.

When you don't share your problems, you resent hearing the problems of other people.

Marla's philosophy of life, she told me, is that she can die at any moment. The tragedy of her life is that she doesn't.

And if I do fall asleep, Marla has to keep track of Tyler. Where he goes. What he does. So maybe during the day, I can rush around and undo the damage.

Ultimately, everyone is acting out of what they feel is the best choice. In a way, they're all trying to improve the world. And I think that those basic choices make the world a better place.

No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day.