That's what I realized: if I did get her back somehow, she wouldn't fill the hole that losing her created.

You know your problem, Quentin? You keep expecting people not to be themselves.

I thought of the one thing about home that I missed, my dad's study with its built-in, floor-to-ceiling shelves sagging with thick biographies and the black leather chair that kept me just uncomfortable enough to keep from feeling sleepy as I read.

The town was paper, but the memories were not.

The United States Congress, like a lot of rich people, lives in two houses.

Sorry," I said to the Duke. "Eh, it's not your fault. It's Carla's fault. You were turning the wheel. Carla just wasn't listening. I knew I shouldn't have loved her. She's like all the others, Tobin; as soon as I confess my love, she abandons me." I laughed. "I never abandoned you," I said patting on her back. "Yeah, well, (a.) I never confessed my love to you, and (b.) I'm not even female to you.

And yet still I worried. I like being a person. I wanted to keep at it. Worry is yet another side effect of dying.