The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.

How wrong to have been so negative, how wrong to have been so gloomy, how wrong to have run away from life, how wrong to have said no, again and again, instead of yes.

It was a way of recognizing places of enchantment: people falling asleep like this.

But nothing disturbs the feeling of specialness like the presence of other human beings feeling identically special.

If you want to have friends, you have to remember that nobody's perfect.

Imagine that human existence is defined by an Ache: the Ache of our not being, each of us, the center of the universe; of our desires forever outnumbering our means of satisfying them.

I wanted all of her and resented other boys for wanting any part of her.