“And do you agree that the mornings when we appreciated each other might have been better than the mornings we loved each other?”

“I think if you tell someone that you love him or her, (especially a person that once screamed, “I’m not gonna love you ever!”) and that person says “duh,” then I think that means you have done something right.”

“I can accept that all I’ve ever wanted is not very special—all I’ve ever wanted, like most people, is proof of love.”

“You’ve always called me irreverent. You’ve branded me irreverent. In my mind you invented irreverent.”

“My mother wanted to be Betty Boop. Betty Boop was independent. Betty Boop was sexy. Betty Boop really had her shit together, you know?”

“From the first winter afternoon in the Harvard ball fields, "Oh no--I need you" had become an admission and a clarion call--the tenet of dependency that forms the weft of friendship. We needed each other so that we could count the endless days of forests and flat water, but the real need was soldered by the sadder, harder moments--discord or helplessness or fear--that we dared to expose to each other. It took me years to grasp that this grit and discomfort in any relationship are an indicator of closeness, not it's opposite.”

“Whenever he began to see me as something more than a liability or a weapon, whenever we spoke to each other without the barrier of rank and history between us, he backed away, more often than not insulting me to force the distance." Merit - Chicagoland Vampires”