There was quite a lot of competitiveness about it, with everybody wanting to beat not only cancer itself, but also the other people in the room. Like, I realize that this is irrational, but when they tell you that you have, say, a 20 percent chance of living five years, the math kicks in and you figure that’s one in five . . . so you look around and think, as any healthy person would: I gotta outlast four of these bastards.

Our lives are composed of a finite set of moments that we choose how to spend.

The five of us walking confidently in a row, I'd never felt cooler. The Great Perhaps was upon us, and we were invincible. The plan may have had faults, but we did not.

Margo says, "I know what she's talking about. The something deeper and more secret. It's like cracks inside of you. Like there are these fault lines where things don't meet up right.

But you want to see shapes; you want to see stories, so you pick them out of the sky.

Did I help you toward a fate you didn't want, Alaska, or did I just assist in your willful self-destruction?

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