Writing, or at least good writing, is an outgrowth of that urge to use language to communicate complex ideas and experiences between people. And that's true whether you're reading Shakespeare or bad vampire fiction-reading is always an act of empathy. It's always an imagining of what it's like to be someone else.

We're going to get gored to death by a feral fugging hog and your best strategy is to pretend it's a grizzly bear?

She had the kind of eyes that predisposed you to supporting her every endeavor.

We were kissing. I thought: This is good. I thought: I am not bad at this kissing. Not bad at all. I thought: I am clearly the greatest kisser in the history of the universe. Suddenly she laughed and pulled away from me. She wiggled a hand out of her sleeping bag and wiped her face. "You slobbered on my nose," she said, and laughed

…God, it’s over. Takumi, you gotta stop stealing other people’s problems and get some of your own.

I hated sports. I hated sports, and I hated people who played them, and I hated people who watched them, and I hated people who didn't hate people who watched or played them.

All good American literature is always interested in people who are ambiguously heroic, like Gatsby.