So we forgive each other?" The crooked smile climbs up one more time. "Again?" And I look right into his eyes, right into him as far as I can see, because I want him to hear me, I want him to hear me with everything I mean and feel and say. "Always," I say to him. "Every time.

Dogs don't got the problems of people. Dogs can be happy any old time.

And changing for the better doesn't mean that he's ever going to reach good.

Midnight passes and I'm twenty-five days and a million years from becoming a man.

We have to lie to ourselves to live. Otherwise, we'd go crazy.

It is a true story, the monster said. Many things that are true feel like a cheat.

You love him," he says. Not an asking, just a fact. "I do," I say. Also a fact.