“Some days you wake up and feel quite certain that something is going to happen and it generally doesn't, and when things are really going to happen it never feels like it a bit.”

“Is one changing all the time, then?' she asks. 'Am I changing - without knowing it?”

“I have the belief in boldness. What I generally lack is the boldness itself. Because boldness doesn't feel bold. It feels scared not brave.”

“When I reached the street I didn't know whether to go right or left. Soon I'd have to start acting like a person who cared about what happened to him.”

“Does everything you touch turn to shit? Does this happen to you every time?""No wonder they call me Fuckhead."It's a name that's going to stick.”

“Ernie got it,' I said afterwards. 'His experience taught him that you've got to fight for what's right. It gets you into a lot of trouble but he came to the same conclusion as me.' People think it could never happen here. Don't you believe it; it doesn't take much.”

“The traveling salesmen fed me pills that made the lining of my veins feel scraped out, my jaw ached... I knew every raindrop by its name, I sensed everything before it happened. Like I knew a certain oldsmobile would stop even before it slowed, and by the sweet voices of the family inside, I knew we'd have an accident in the rain. I didn't care. They said they'd take me all the way.”