“The message of "The Winner Takes It All" is straightforward: It argues that the concept of relationships ending on mutual terms is an emotional fallacy. One person is inevitably okay and the other is inevitably devastated.”

“Important things are inevitably cliche, but nobody wants to admit that.”

“Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less.”

“It might sound chauvinistic, but there is a sad reality in rock music: Bands who depend on support from females inevitably crash and burn.”

“By now, everyone I know is one of seven strangers, inevitably hoping to represent a predefined demographic and always failing horribly. The Read World is the real world is The Real World is the read world. It’s the same true story, even when it isn’t.”

“But whenever I meet dynamic, nonretarded Americans, I notice that they all seem to share a single unifying characteristic: the inability to experience the kind of mind-blowing, transcendent romantic relationship they perceive to be a normal part of living. And someone needs to take the fall for this. So instead of blaming no one for this (which is kind of cowardly) or blaming everyone (which is kind of meaningless), I'm going to blame John Cusack.”

“Mostly, we argued about who which of us was better at arguing, and particularly about who had won the previous argument.”