“If only I could tell someone.The humiliation I go throughwhen I think of my pastcan only be described as grace.We are created by being destroyed.”

“Was he laughing at me? Was I so pathetic that the thought that not only getting caught, but being humiliated with laughter was appropriate punishment for my lameness?”

“That's the only way I could describe the music. It was the sonic equivalent of flight”

“I dont want to destroy you - DellaLosing you would be the only thing that could destroy me - Woods”

“Heart Breaking,I think that if Dad, staring down the sight of a 10mm,would only tell me he loves me,I could easily change my mind......but he won't.”

“When he mentioned family, I could only think of my father, my real father, the Long Island janitor with the impenetrable accent and true-to-life smells. My mind returned away from what Joshie was saying and I pondered my father's humiliation. The humiliation of growing up a Jew in the Soviet Union, of cleaning piss-stained bathrooms in the States, of worshipping a country that would collapse as simply and inelegantly as the one he had abandoned.”