“Miscommunication causes so much aggravation!!”

“Time stands still cause time can't heal...”

“Read. As much as you can. As deeply and widely and nourishingly and ­irritatingly as you can. And the good things will make you remember them, so you won't need to take notes.”

“keep bees and grow asparagus.listen to the windinstead of the politicians,make up your own storiesand believe them if you want to livethe good life”

“The right wrist, because I'm right-handed - so that must be the one that's done most wrong. Although, now that I think, my sins have mostly been ambidextrous.”

“I just wanted things to be simple. I didn't understand why things had to be so complicated for all the grown ups. And I decided that if growing up meant things got confusing, then I would stay little forever. I would stay simple. But unfortunately everything around me did its best not to be. The world liked to be complex. It liked to twist, to distort. To bleed you dry of whatever feeling you could muster while still letting you hold on to your sanity so that you could experience heartache at its prime. I didn't know how cold the world could be when I was eleven. If I would have known...maybe I would have packed a sweater.”

“I can't help it either, the laughing: solemn gatherings, slowballads, pompous orations, any person or occasion that assumes I'lloffer my unreserved respect: I tend to find them all hysterical in theend. Especially if someone similar is there to set me off. They don'thave to do much: I recognize what it looks like when somebody'scomposure starts to strip itself away. They'll maybe cross their armswith that twitchy, shaky, tension, or they'll grab down little wheezesof embarrassed air, or they'll simply hood their faces under theirpalm, trying to hide how fast they're slipping, how fast *we're*slipping, because I'll be weakening with them by then, I'll be just aslost, pulled equally tight against the moment when we both stop caringand let it disgrace us -- when we laugh.”