“I suppose it's too bad people can't be a little more consistent. But if they were, maybe they would stop being people.”

“Too bad people can't always be playing music, maybe then there wouldn't be any more wars.”

“A little love and attention can go a long way...too bad more people don't realize that.”

“Perhaps, she thought, people were more like ammonites than one would suppose. Perhaps they too built shells on a consistent, unchanging factor—some quality or circumstance established in their youth. Each chamber in the shell just an enlargement of the previous. Growing year after year, until they spiraled around and locked themselves in place.”

“It's hard to imagine talking to Lucy. But I can imagine sleeping with her. I have been imagining it quite regularly. I can't stop imagining it. Maybe it's time for my first Lucy Branch, my first truly physical relationship. And why do I assume it would be a bad thing? Maybe it's better with someone different from you. I could teach her how fluorocarbons affect the ozone. She could teach me about oral sex.We would both become better people.”

“My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.”