“Mom is talking to Jack. "I hear you're interested in zoo animals."I snort. There's a sentence you don't hear too often. I fake an insulted sigh."Well, thank-you, Mother. Yes, I'm hungry, but you don't have to be so honest about it. Your tact is amazing.”

“I heard some interesting things about your performance up here.""I hear interesting things about your 'performance' all the time Doug, but you don't hear me making jokes about it.”

“Don't tell Mom and Dad about Ty,' I warn Mike. 'But they'll be so glad to hear you aren't gay!”

“I'm hungry, Garion, and I don't think well when I'm hungry.""That might explain a lot," Beldin noted blandly. "We should have fed you more often when you were younger." "You can be terribly offensive sometimes, do you know that?""Why, yes, as a matter of fact I do.”

“I was heading to Nebraska. Now there's a sentence you don't want to say too often if you can possibly help it.”

“She brought the tea into the living room on a lacquered tray. The pot and cups were Japanese with unglazed rims. She poured. "Thanks," I said. "Well?" "Huh?" "Your family," she reminded. I sipped the tea. "This is really good. Really delicious." She raised her eyebrows. "That's what I thought. You're a good listener, Davy, and you can change the subject on a dime. You've hardly talked about yourself at all." "I talk... too much." "You talk about books, you talk about plays, you talk about movies, you talk about places, you talk about food, you talk about current events. You don't talk about yourself." I opened my mouth, then shut it again. I hadn't really thought about it. Sure, I didn't talk  about the jumping, but the rest? "Well, there's not much to say. Not like those stories of growing up with four brothers." She smiled. "It's not going to work. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But I'm not going to be distracted again, nor fooled into talking about those idiots again." She poured more tea into my cup. I frowned. "Do I really do that?" "What? Not talk about yourself? Yes." "No, try and distract you." She stared at me. "You are fucking amazing. I've never seen someone so good at changing the subject." "I don't do it on purpose." She laughed. ”