I just want some space to myself every now and then. Every time I’m with you I have this sense that you want something from me.

That was the summer when everything we would become was hovering just over our heads.

If you really want a prize, or if you really want applause, you should try to write as many books as humanly possible.

You ask everybody you know: How long does it usually take to get over it? There are many formulas. One year for every year you dated. Two years for every year you dated. It's just a matter of will power: The day you decide it's over, it's over. You never get over it.

I'm like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good.

As expected: she, the daughter of the Fall, recipient of its heaviest radiation, loved atomically.

In another universe I probably came out OK, ended up with mad novias and jobs and a sea of love in which to swim, but in this world I had a brother who was dying of cancer and a long dark patch of life like a mile of black ice waiting for me up ahead.