“It's a silly thing, but I like to understand people through their obsessions.”

“I'd like to be a light meter.""A what?""A light meter. Like a photographer uses. Tinks had one this morning." Aidan snapped an imaginary photo of me. "I'd like to be able to measure and know for certain whether people were giving off light or taking light away.""You're strange," I said. "But I think I like that about you.”

“We should make up our own phrase," I suggested. "Add our own contribution to nautical lore."Cal thought about it for a while and then said, "How about, the starboard sea?""What?" I asked. "Like the sea on the right side of the boat? That doesn't mean anything.""No," Cal insisted, "it means the right sea, the true sea, or like finding the best path in life. It's deep. I'm telling you, it's going to catch on. By this time next year, everyone will be using it.”

“When you've done something terrible, something you regret, it gives you this special insight, like you can detect other people's bad behavior.”

“Don't you miss it?" I'd ask Aidan. "All that Hollywood sunshine?""It's like hating the color yellow," she'd say, "and living in a golden age.”

“That night on the Swan we'd promised each other that we'd have some sort of romance. Something unprecedented. "We don't have to be like other people," she'd said, and I'd believed her.”

“It was scary having that sort of power over a girl. You could hurt her in ways you might never understand.”