“Bribes are the glue that's kept teenagers and parents connected for generations”

“But after shows, I craved connection. I craved skin-the taste of another woman's sweat. If it couldn't be hers, well, then anyone's would do...for a few hours.”

“And that's just it, isn't it? That's how we manage to survive the loss. Because love, it never dies, it never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it.”

“The people we pretend at, they're already in us. That's why we pretend them in the first place.”

“Whoever said that the past isn't dead had it backward. It's the future that's already dead, already played out.”

“She's still beautiful. Not in an obvious Vanessa LeGrande or Byrn Shraeder kind of way. In a quiet way that's always been devastating to me.”

“Sleep would be so welcome. A warm blanket of black to erase everything else. Sleep without dreams. I've heard people talk about the sleep of the dead. Is that what death would feel like? The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap? If that's what it's like, I wouldn't mind. If that's what dying is like, I wouldn't mind that at all.”