“He has that look, like I am being unreasonable, like he is so sure I am being unreasonable that I wonder if I am.”

“Like King Midas, I am left with nothingbut this unreasonable hopethat, somehow, my strange lifeand my lost familywill returnto normal. ”

“I am sorry, I am very sorry to ask you to lie," he said, so earnestly that I wondered if it hurt him to lie. That made him seem more like a god than a human being. If it hurt to lie, how could you stay alive?”

“I feel like I am floating in plasmaI need a teacher or a loverI need someone to risk being involved with me.I am so vainand I am so masochistic.How can they coexist?”

“I think I must be smiling at him because he's smiling at me, but he's smiling like he might be petrified; he's breathing like he's forgotten he's supposed to, looking at me like he's not sure how to do this, hesitating like he's unsure how to let me see him like this. Like he has no idea how to be so vulnerable.But here he is.And here I am.”

“and I am quite sure that they are worth being painted.”