“The father of Ruth van Cleve's child, she reports, is under the protection and care of the Norfolk County Correctional Authority, awaiting sentencing for what Ruth van Cleve describes several times as operating a pharmaceutical company without a license.”

“If we don't confuse lust with love, nobody gets hurt." Cleve, I Broke his Heart”

“Do you miss Susie?"Because it was dark, because Ruth was facing away from her,because Ruth was almost a stranger, Lindsey said what she felt."More than anyone will ever know.”

“Me and Ruth minus Ruth leaves me Ruthless—and makes me ruthless.”

“Why was she always so craven, so apologetic? He had always seen Ruth as separate, good and untainted. As a child, his parents had appeared to him as starkly black and white, the one bad and frightening, the other good and kind. Yet as he had grown older, he kept coming up hard in his mind against Ruth's willing blindness, to her constant apologia for his father, to the unshakeable allegiance to her false idol.”

“Vans are the vehicles of murderers. Serial Killers. Rapists. Thieves. Nothing good ever happens in a van. Police should be allowed to arrest van drivers without cause. The van is the cause, asshole.”