When the beginnings of self destruction enter the heart, it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.

There is a terrible sameness to the euphoria of alcohol and the euphoria of metaphor.

The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable.

For lovers, touch is metamorphosis. All the parts of their bodies seem to change, and they seem to become something different and better.

I write to make sense of my life." -John Cheever, quoted in _Cheever - A Life_ (2009) by Blake Bailey

Our country is the best country in the world. We are swimming in prosperity and our President is the best president in the world. We have larger apples and better cotton and faster and more beautiful machines. This makes us the greatest country in the world. Unemployment is a myth. Dissatisfaction is a fable. In preparatory school America is beautiful. It is the gem of the ocean and it is too bad. It is bad because people believe it all. Because they become indifferent. Because they marry and reproduce and vote and they know nothing.

It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.