Not for the first time in my life, and certainly not for the last, a self-righteous gloom had edged out all semblance of logic.

I used to think--and given the way we ended up, maybe I still do--that all relationships need the kind of violent shove that a crush brings, just to get you started and to push you over the humps. And then, when the energy from that shove has gone and you come to something approaching a halt, you have to look around and see what you've got. It could be something completely different, it could be something roughly the same, but gentler and calmer, or it could be nothing at all.

Record stores can't save your life. But they can give you a better one.

What harm has he ever done to you?' 'You know what harm he's done me. He offended me with his terrible taste.

...I feel as though I made a face and the wind changed, and now I have to go through life grimacing in this horrible way.

What went wrong? Nothing and everything.

You don't ask people with knives in their stomachs what would make them happy; happiness is no longer the point. It's all about survival; it's all about whether you pull the knife out and bleed to death or keep it in.