I write because I want to end my loneliness. Books make people less alone. That, before and after everything else, is what books do. They show us that conversations are possible across distances.

Look, taste is clearly the crudest of our senses: this is scientifically, objectively factual. It is less nuanced. Eyesight is extraordinary - hearing, touch. I find people who devote their whole lives to taste a little strange.

Books are for those without real lives, he thought. And they are no real replacement.

Not responding is a response - we are equally responsible for what we don't do.

It made me start to wonder if there were other people so lonely so close. I thought about “Eleanor Rigby.” It’s true, where do they all come from? And where do they all belong?

It was getting hard to keep all the things I didn't know inside me.

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