“It's like I've had a stroke. Do you think I've had a stroke?" "I don't think you've had a stroke.""But how do you know? How can you be sure I haven't had a stroke?""What are the symptoms of a stroke?""I don't know. Look them up. Look them up on line.""OK. Hold on...OK. Here it is. Do you have trouble speaking?""I have trouble speaking intelligently.”

“And what nags me about this is that the source of my anxiety was exactly what Kierkegaard says the source of anxiety is, and what he praised in direct proportion to the volume any person possesses: possibility. The awareness that life is a series of choices any one of which could be either aggrandizing or disastrous. That this happens to be true I have no trouble signing on to. Any who has lived past the age of ten knows that even piddling actions can wind up having big consequences, and that even when you are super-conscious of your behaviors you can't know how things are going to turn out in the short- or the long-run. That's the drama of it all. On the one hand, your very existence means you can and will change things in your life and others. On the other hand, you aren't God, so everything is always going to be drenched in uncertainty and doubt.”

“You are a very special child," the old handmaid said, stroking Eleonora's hair. "You know that don't you?"Eleonora mumbled a yes."You know you are special, but I think that you aren't sure how."She nodded. That was, indeed, the crux of it.”

“Jev stroked his chin. "Do I look like a summer fling?”

“I squinted one of my eyes at Daniel.“What are you doing?” he asked.“This is me, giving you the side eye.” I continued to squint.“Well, you look like you’re having a stroke”

“The side whiskers indeed were quite handsome. But he stroked them so very zealously that looking at him, one might very well think that first just the side whiskers had been brought into the world, and then later the gentleman was attached to them in order to stroke them.”

“Thinking there had to be a better way was a brilliant stroke of serendipity!”