Sometimes people graduate but they don't leave. They hang around for years, for no reason. I would think of ghosts like that, I decided.

I'm done. I'm going to go to bed and read important books about theater." "It would would be easier if you just said porn," Scarlett said. "No idea what you're talking about. But knock first if you need me.

It's always awkward when someone doesn't realize you're joking and devotes thought time to what you've said. Double that when the person is wearing tinfoil.

These houses had been plunked down with an alarming randomness -- unevenly spaced, on crooked lines, like whoever had designed the place had said, "We'll just follow this cat, and wherever he sits down, we'll build something.

It could have been like a fairy tale. But fairy tales aren't real. Things don't work like that. There's a price for everything.

Salt. Wound. Together at last.

Tired, but not the kind of tired that sleep fixes.