“You gamble, you believe in luck. Like if you're swimming, you believe in water. Right?”

“The city was the perfect place, it was... Heaven. And when I got here people said: who are you? But I thought they were asking where so I said, Heaven.’Melrose sucks his pen. ‘And that became your name.’‘It’s not my name. It’s just what people call me.”

“Babe had lots of looks but gradually she got stuck in the sixties, with hairspray and long dresses and fingernails and eyeliner. She became a more intense version of women who demonstrate whiteware products on television, taller with longer, darker hair and tighter wool suits and pointier shoes. I didn’t have any money to buy clothes then. It was the first time I’d admitted it to anyone. Babe felt sorry for me and took me out shoplifting.”

“when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you're gonna believe them. And when you're fifteen don't forget to look before you fall. In your life you'll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team. I didn't know it at fifteen.”

“But people didn't forgive you for doing what felt right-that was the last thing they forgave you for.”

“Real love still happens sometimes. It's not just something we make up when you're nine. I have to believe that. You do too.”

“Never believe anyone who tells you that you don't deserve what you want.”