Charlie, you’re one of the most gifted people I’ve ever known. And I don’t mean in terms of my other students. I mean in terms of anyone I’ve ever met.

You get the right collection of people together and you get the atmosphere together that it is very free where there is no judgment. If you create an atmosphere that is very open you steer the ship.

And we could all sit around and wonder and feel bad about each other and blame a lot of people for what they did or didn’t do or what they didn’t know. I don’t know. I guess there would always be someone to blame.

It's too bad you're not gay. Then again, if you were gay, I would never date you. You're a mess." You know, Patrick? If I were gay, I'd want to date you." Of course.

I wanted to laugh. Or maybe get mad. Or maybe shrug at how strange everyone was, especially me.

It's strange because sometimes, I read a book, and I think I am the people in the book.

You know . . . a lot of kids at school hate their parents. Some of them got hit. And some of them got caught in the middle of wrong lives. Some of them were trophies for their parents to show the neighbors like ribbons or gold stars. And some of them just wanted to drink in peace.