You're not going to impose the patriarchal paradigm on me.

And then I screwed up and the Colonel screwed up and Takumi screwed up and she slipped through our fingers.

I couldn’t help but think about school and everything else ending. I liked standing just outside the couches and watching them—it was a kind of sad I didn’t mind, and so I just listened, letting all the happiness and the sadness of this ending swirl around in me, each sharpening the other. For the longest time, it felt kind of like my chest was cracking open, but not precisely in an unpleasant way.

You're not a little kid anymore. You need to make friends, get out of the house, and live your life.

Like all sick children,' he answered dispassionately, 'you say you don't want pity, but your very existence depends upon it.

I always had this secret suspicion that I was special.

The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle.