I know that attaching memories to books may be going out of the world, but while it lasts, it's a strong record of your life.

Everyone struggles against despair, but it always wins in the end. It has to. It's the thing that lets us say goodbye.

The zipper opened all the way down our spines.

On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide- it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese- the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope.

Mitchell had answered that, as far as he understood them, mystical experiences were significant only to the extent that they changed a person's conception of reality, and if that changed conception led to a change in behavior and action, a loss of ego.

They're just memories now. Time to write them off.

I think, especially when you're in college, each book that you're reading tends to tell you who you are.