While it is always possible to wake a person who's sleeping, no amount of noise will wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.

She said, 'Believe it or not, I used to be idealistic.' I asked her what 'idealistic' meant. 'It means you live by what you think is right.' 'You don't do that anymore?' 'There are questions I don't ask anymore.

What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?

Or maybe what he fears is just the opposite: that nobody is looking; that his death, like his life, is without purpose; that there is neither greater good nor evil--only people living and dying because their bodies function and then do not; that the universe is a rip.

I brought the birdcages to the windows. I opened the windows, and opened the birdcages. I poured the fish down the drain. I took the dogs and cats downstairs and removed their collars. I released the insects onto the street. And the reptiles. And the mice. I told them, Go. All of you. Go. And they went. And they didn’t come back

I want an infinitely blank book and the rest of time.

...there are only some many times you can utter "It does not hurt" before it begins to hurt even more than the hurt.