People don't always want to be with people. It gets tiring.

[E]verywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear.

There are so many examples today of how the kind of wonderful zealousness and unquestioning loyalty of young people can be harnessed by all sorts of insidious powers.

He [Ma's Tooth] was part of her a minute ago but now he's not. Just a thing.

The sound of the pages turning was the sound of magic. The dry liquid feel of paper under fingertips was what magic felt like.

...Sometimes I suspect that what had really happened was that we became more resigned, more cynical, raised our pain thresholds as we lowered our expectations. All in all, settled for less.

Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons.