“we were in her big oakbedfacing southso much of the rest of thetimethat I memorizedeach wrinkle in thedrapesand especiallyall the cracks in theceiling.I used to play games withher with that ceiling."see those cracks upthere?""where?""look where I'm pointing...""o.k.""now, see those cracks, see the pattern? it forms and image. do you seewhat it is?""umm, umm ...""go on, what is it?""I know! It's a man on top of a woman!""wrong. it's a flamingo standingby a stream.". . . we finally got free ofone another.it's sad but it'sstandard operating procedure(I am constantly confused bythe lack of durability in humanaffairs).I suppose the parting wasunhappymaybe even ugly.it's been 3 or 4 years nowand I wonder if sheever thinks ofme, of what I am doing?”

“Once the vessel cracks open, the end becomes inevitable. But there is all this time inbetween when the vessel cracks open and we finally fall apart. And its only in that time that we can really see one another, because we see out of ourselves, through the cracks, and into theirs. When did we see each other face to face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other.”

“You know what? You didn't do anything wrong. I did. It's this dumb thing I do. I look into things and see more than I'm supposed to.”

“I don't know myself, what to do, where to go... I lie in the crack of a book for my comfort... it's what the world offers... please leave me alone to dream as I fancy.”

“If someone cracks up, what does that mean? At what point does a person about to fall to pieces say: I'm cracking up? And if I were to crack up, what form would it take?”

“But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And it's only in that time that we can see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs. When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.”