For if the world treats you well, Sir, you come to believe you are deserving of it.

How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word.

Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome.

I'm working on my own life story. I don't mean I'm putting it together; no, I'm taking it apart. If you'd wanted the narrative line you should have asked earlier, when I still knew everything and was more than willing to tell. That was before I discovered the virtues of scissors, the virtues of matches.

The way love feels is always only approximate. I would like to be without shame. I would like to be shameless. I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was.

This is how the girl who couldn't speak and the man who couldn't see fell in love.

Every habit he's ever had is still there in his body, lying dormant like flowers in the desert. Given the right conditions, all his old addictions would burst into full and luxuriant bloom.