Kathy was a Republican, one of those people who used the unforgivable phrase "meant to be"--usually when describing her own good fortune or the disasters that had befallen other people.

reach isn’t describable in terms of cause and effect anymore: it’s simultaneous.

But it was another girl, young and new to the city, fiddling with her keys.

But I always need to identify with a character to write about him or her - and by "identify," I mean see the world through that person's eyes and have a strong sense of the inner logic of their acts and decisions, wacky or wrongheaded though they might be. In that sense, I think there's some of me in all of them.

They were snobs or idiots or both...yet she was inexplicably crushed by their coldness.

The pause makes you think the song will end. And then the song isn't really over, so you're relieved. But then the song does actually end, because every song ends, obviously, and THAT. TIME. THE. END. IS. FOR. REAL.

Too clear, too clean. The problem was precision, perfection.