...all I have to do is stay in between the lines and make sure that no one is too close to me and I am not too close to anyone and keep leaving. Maybe it felt like this for her, too, but I could never feel like this alone.

I fear oblivion. I fear it like the proverbial blind man who's afraid of the dark.

He may be a malevolent sorcerer, but Tiny Cooper is his own goddamned man, and if he wants to be a gigantic skipper, then that's his right as a huge American.

I leaned in toward her, suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling that we must kiss.

Breaking up isn't something that gets done to you; its something that happens with you.

If my public existence does anything worthwhile, hopefully it at least demystifies the author a bit, because I know when I was younger I felt like authors were like wizards or something. Turns out they're total muggles.

there is no best and no worst, ...those judgments have no real meaning because there is only what is