[...] falling in love with someone beautiful and intelligent and the rest of it, then feeling like a blank twit put you at something of a disadvantage.

Human beings are millions of things in one day.

The plain state of being human is dramatic enough for anyone

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

Phone calls like ours only happen when you've spent several years hurting and being hurt, until every work you utter or hear becomes coded and loaded, as complicated and full of subtext as a bleak and brilliant play.

What went wrong? Nothing and everything.

[H]ow was I supposed to get excited about the oppression of females if they couldn't be trusted to stay upright during the final minutes of a desperately close promotion campaign?