“Who the hell ain't dysfunctional these days? When the Kennedys straighten out, then maybe the rest of us should worry.”

“The years of her life tumbled out onto the floor like marbles that she would never be able to gather up again in one bowl. The years of her life had been a made puzzle that one day gets unmade, the pieces all scattered.”

“When you don't know enough about life to know what you might have missed out on, your imagination plays wicked tricks on you.”

“Sometimes, in the dark of night, when no one else could hear him but me, he'd cry out, like he was fighting some silent little war in his head.”

“She knew for certain there were all kinds of people who craved their youth, who would run like gazelles toward that fishhook of time, peeling off the years like old imagined skins.”

“the sort of kid who steered his bicycle around snakes crossing the road”

“I know how loud the seconds can sound as you stand by a window and peer out into the night.”