What greater happiness is there than the privilege of being bored together?

I think in general, novels by men tend to be taken more seriously than novels by women.

... nothing broke my heart like the slow death of a shared joke that had once seemed genuinely funny.

At that time in my life, no conclusion was a bad conclusion. Something ended, and you stopped wishing and worrying. You could consider your mistakes, and you might be embarrassed by them, but the box was sealed, the door was shut, you were no longer immersed in the confusing middle.

The better you learn to take care of yourself, the less you settle for being around people who can't or won't treat you as well as you're accustomed.

We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.

I feel like as I've gotten older I've unfortunately come to the decision that a lot of people who seem normal and boring maybe are normal and boring.