“My future was mapped in negatives. Next year, I could be anywhere but here.”

“It feels strange to me to be living in a box, hiding from the steadying influence of the moon; wearing the hide of a cow, which is supposed to be dyed to match God-knows-what, on my feet; making promises over the telephone about things I will do at a precise hour next year.”

“So one time when I was working in this motel one of the toilets leaked and I had to replace the flapper ball. Here's what it said on the package; I kept it till I knew it by heart: 'Please Note. Parts are included for all installations, but no installation requires all of the parts.' That's kind of my philosophy about men. I don't think there's an installation out there that could use all my parts.”

“I wish I could go visit them and talk in my own language, the English I knew before I grew thorns on my tongue.”

“Mother could go for one year without food, but not one day without her lip sticks.”

“I had just dropped out of medicine in my first year of residency, a few months shy of becoming a licensed M.D. I'd discovered there was something serious, mainly a matter of nerve and perhaps empathy, that stood in my way.”

“I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book.”