But before we can radically reshape the world, we need to shop.

weltschmerz: its the depression you feel when the world as it is does not line up with the world as you think it should be.

You don't remember what happened. What you remember becomes what happened.

And okay, fair enough, but there is this unwritten contract between author and reader and I think not ending your book kind of violates that contract.

I told him they built a statue of Schultz, and then he said that a monument is cold comfort to a dead man, and then I said that the statue was built not for Schultz, but for us--to remind us how to be human.

But what could I lose by continuing that had not already been lost?

Tobin," Mom said disapprovingly. She wasn't a particularly funny person. It suited her professionally - I mean, you don't want your cancer surgeon to walk into the examination room and be like, "Guy walks into a bar. Bartender says, 'What'll ya have?' And the guy says, 'Whaddya got?' And the bartender says, 'I don't know what I got, but I know what you got: Stage IV melanoma.