With the knowledge of her aloneness came a rush of self-declaration: “I will not be nothing.”

...but with the hours I sometimes kept at the coffeehouse I had to have learned to take naps during the day or die, and I had learned to take naps. Up until five months ago "something or other or die" had always seemed like a plain choice in favor of the something or other.

I long for another human face just as I fear it.

If you wish, I shall go personally to your City and knock together the heads of Perlith and Galooney.

Say yes, babe, or I'll spill you off over the Wall next time - got it?

Roses are for love. Not silly sweet-hearts' love but the love that makes you and keeps you whole, love that gets you through the worst your life'll give you and that pours out of you when you're given the best instead.

Never assume. Never make plans. Keep doing the press-ups and deep knee bends: you'll need all your strength and flexibility when your life suddenly implodes. Maybe it won't — some people do lead enchanted lives — but odds are that it will. Some time.