“Lively, intelligent, and quite immature, [Emily] usually burst out with exactly the comment that summed up the situation beautifully and therefore could never in politeness be said.”

“Her daughter's comment amused Emily. 'I didn't know stalking could be a group activity”

“It was night. There was a drizzle, so Emily's black Japanese umbrella was up. The two were close beneath it, walking in long strides, beautiful, sinister-looking lovers, narrow squared shoulders in dark coats. A tall pickup truck sped by and a was a phlem struck the edge of the pavement near where they were walking. Emily raised a finger, cocked her thumb, and said, "Bang.""Got the left rear tire." said Anthony."The truck rolled," she added, "and burst into flames.""He's still alive," said Anthony, "climbing out of the broken rear window, his hair and clothes ablaze, screaming for help.""Punky boys come and piss on him," said Emily.The discussion was very quiet, very earnest."They put out the fire from his burning body," said Anthony, "but he dies later in the burn ward.""His family is relieved and happy," said Emily with stunning finality.Twenty-four hours later the spitting driver dies on a suburban highway near his home, his pickup spinning out of control on black ice, the vehicle exploding into flame. Anthony and Emily never know about it, never guess a connection to their curse, having never thought of him a second time.”

“Politics is the executive expression of human immaturity.”

“There is a line somewhere in Wozzeck that translates out to, roughly, 'The world is awful.' Yes, I said to myself as I shot across the Bay Bridge not giving a fuck how fast I drove, that sums it up. That is high art: 'The world is awful.' That says it all. This is what we pay composers and painters and the great writers to do: tell us this; from figuring this out, they earn a living. What a masterful, incisive insight. What penetrating intelligence. A rat in a drain ditch could tell you the same thing, were it able to talk. If rats could talk, I'd do anything they said.”

“If you could sum up your life in one sentence, then you didn’t live much of a life.”