Good writing takes place at intersections, at what you might call knots, at places where the society is snarled or knotted up.

There's something final about saying you were married once. It's like saying you were dead once. It shuts them up.

...how much needless despair has been caused by a series of biological mismatches, a misalignment of the hormones and pheromones? Resulting in the fact that the one you love so passionately won't or can't love you. As a species we're pathetic that way: imperfectly monogamous.

Some of our earliest writing, in cuneiform, was about who owes what.

We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.

But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.

What people want is perfection," said the man. "In themselves." "But they need the steps to it to be pointed out," said the woman. "In a simple order," said the man. "With encouragement," said the woman. "And a positive attitude.