The bruises go away, and so does how you hate, and so does the feeling that everything you receive from life is something you have earned.

I didn't intend to write about totems or people searching. I tried not to constrain myself, and this is what I ended up with. There's this great Auden quote: "I look at what I write so I can see what I think."

Highs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they're nothing." "So what's something?" "Being reliable is something. Being good.

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

My impression is that staying together as a couple does not correspond to the challenges themselves, but whether the very idea of breaking up is an option on the table. If it is, then some people take it. If it's not, then they will keep working at it. You must know people who were terribly suited who make it work. And there are couples who seem perfectly suited that break up. It's a mystery to everyone.

I thought for a minute, and then I got heavy, heavy boots.

...he was leaving me. I wondered if I should stop him. If I should wrestle him to the ground and force him to love me. I wanted to hold his shoulders down and shout into his face.