“When a writer tries to explain too much, he's out of time before he begins.”

“In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable... The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.”

“Love was a hundred times worse than all the stupid songs could ever try to explain. And when he loved you back, it was too much. Like all of those feelings could never fit. You'd have to spend your life trying to figure out how, but it wouldn't matter as long as he kept looking at you like that.”

“He drank too much when he could get it, ate too much when it was there, talked too much all the time.”

“Being a writer guarantees that you will spend too much time alone -- and that as a result, your mind will begin to warp.”

“Before you marry, you have to get shot by an arrow and fall in love,” the boy explained. He paused thoughtfully. “But I don’t think the rest of it hurts as much as the beginning.”