“Yeah, well, I wanted to be a screenwriter, and guess what? I am one. That's the other tragedy in life.”

“My ideal life is a quiet one. I like to read, to sit still in the same chair, with the lampshade at a certain angle, alone, or with Meagan nearby, and now and then, if I'm lucky, I'll come across a lovely phrase or fine sentiment, look up from my book, and feel the harmony of some notion, the justice of it, and know that everything is there. That's life to me, those privately discovered moments. ”

“her knees, which looked, in the faint blue light, as though they'd been carved by water from a bar of soap.”

“It's hard to kill yourself by taking Tylenol. You die from liver failure, which takes a long time...”

“Where exactly do you put your hands on somebody who hurts everywhere?”

“You all have stories, Sandy said. And we have secrets”

“what I want you to be - I don't mean physically but morally: you are very well physically - is a firm fellow, a fine firm fellow, with a will of your own, with resolution. with determination. with strength of character that is not to be influenced except on good reason by anybody, or by anything. That's what I want you to be. That's what your father, & your mother might both have been”