She let out a laugh, and then she put her hand over her mouth, like she was angry at herself for forgetting her sadness.

The gift is for you...The surprise is for me.

[…] but I believe that things are extremely complicated, and her looking over me was as complicated as anything could ever be. But it was also incredibly simple.

To feel alone is to be alone.

The animals are those things that God likes but doesn't love.

The end of suffering does not justify the suffering, what a mess I am, I thought, what a fool, how foolish and narrow, how worthless, how pinched and pathetic, how helpless.

I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is. But now I think the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world.