How can you read and talk at the same time?” I asked. “Well, I usually can’t, but neither the book nor the conversation is particularly intellectually challenging.

What I eventually realized is that the real business of books is not done by awards committees or people who turn trees into paper or editors or agents or even writers. We're all just facilitators. The real business is done by readers.

High School made me realize that the people who say they will never change, are always the ones who change the most.

No, I don’t think you’re gonna be single forever, and also I don’t understand your obsession with romantic love. There are other ways to have fulfilling relationships that can sustain you and make your life great and fun other than having a sexualized relationship. It’s not the only kind of fulfilling human interaction. So, even if you are single forever, that doesn’t mean that you’ve had some kind of failed life.

And I put the latte down on a table, awash in the happy middle of my greatest adventure.

She was up and down—from fire and brimstone to smoke and ashes.

Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn't the way they actually are... People are different when you can smell them and see them up close.