“He [Piers] might have been a goofy flake, but he was, in the end, her goofy flake, and she loved him as much as she could.”

“She followed the melting flakes, revelling in the thickness, the softness of his hair, which he wore long. She had loved to run her fingers through it before. Tug at it in mounting pleasure. Snuggle into it in the shared intimacy of their loving.”

“As compromised as their marriage might be, part of her still believed in her vows. She loved the man he’d been, and she loved the man she knew he could be.”

“Slowly, quietly, like snow-flakes—like the small flakes that come when it is going to snow all night—little flakes of me, my impressions, my selections, are settling down on the image of her. The real shape wil be quite hidden in the end.”

“Gordie: Alright, alright, Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?Vern: If I could only have one food for the rest of my life? That's easy-Pez. Cherry-flavored Pez. No question about it.Teddy: Goofy's a dog. He's definitely a dog.Gordie: I knew the $64,000 question was fixed. There's no way anybody could know that much about opera!Chris: He can't be a dog. He drives a car and wears a hat.Gordie: Wagon Train's a really cool show, but did you notice they never get anywhere? They just keep wagon training.Vern: Oh, God. That's weird. What the hell is Goofy?”

“It was as if she saw him in a whole new way, as if he had magically been transformed into a new person. Perhaps what she could really see, or wanted so very much to see, was how much he cared for her. Not that he wanted something from her, but that he wanted to see to it that she was happy, that she was taken care of, that that was what he truly wanted. And in that instant, it made her love him.”