“I think every little girl's dream is to be a mermaid or to see a mermaid. [When I was younger] I would go to the beach and cover myself in the sand. People from different cultures and centuries have the same idea of what mermaids are ... so that's maybe a cool thing to think about.”

“... She was as beautiful and lost as a landlocked mermaid.”

“Here's what I think I'm having trouble with: this is what happiness is. When I was a kid, I thought I'd just get happier and happier as I got older, and have more things to be happy about. I based this theory on observation of select adults. The problem with my results is that I couldn't tell the difference then between happy and fake-happy. Now I know you pretend to be just frigging ecstatic over everything, maybe because you're so glad it's not worse.”

“You asked me who I thought I was before. I said maybe I was a fish because I love water and you said, you thought a mermaid, maybe.If you were a mermaid, you said, if you were a mermaid, I was the sea.”

“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.”

“If you were a mermaid, you said, If you were a mermaid, I was the sea.”

“In hindsight, I have no idea why he was ever with me. He thought highly of my breasts. And . . . that's it, I think.”