“I was just a screw or cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else.”

“I was in the machine. My whole life. Then the machine coughed and spat me out. So I thought, OK, if I'm out, I'm out. All the way out. I was a little angry and it was probably an immature reaction. But I got used to it.”

“Our daily life in the auntring was repetitive. On the ship, later, I learned that people who live in artificially complicated situations call such a life 'simple.' I never knew anybody, anywhere I have been, who found life simple. I think a life or a time looks simple when you leave out the details, the way a planet looks smooth, from orbit.”

“I want to be the last thing you see when I go to sleep and the first thing I see when I wake up. I want to sit with you in the sun, on the floor, and anywhere else, just to be close to you. I want it all.”

“I found myself in a place that was thorny, but because I was so used to being there, it bore out certain twisted sensations of comfort. It's a place called «alone».”

“I screwed her over. I didn't want to see her screwed over by someone else.”