“...I had grown accustomed to life being interesting and adventure ridden and, rather childishly, I refused to believe that this must necessarily come to an end and that the rest of my life should be a sort of penance for all the reckless, irresponsible, and immensely fun things I'd done before.”

“I'd made it this far and refused to give up because all my life I had always finished the race.”

“...But it gradually seemed to me that I'd made myself believe something that wasn't true. I'd made myself believe that I was fine and happy and fulfilled on my own without the love of anyone else. Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I'd spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit... And I thought: am I really going to spend the rest of my life without feeling that again? I thought: I want to go to China. It's full of treasures and strangeness and mysteries and joy.”

“Ever dumb thing I ever done in my life there was a decision I made before that got me into it. It was never the dumb thing. It was always some choice I'd made before it.”

“I sighed and wondered if I'd done it- made a friend. I hoped I had even as I wondered if it was a mistake. If nothing else, I supposed, one good thing had come from all this. Now there was a colorful little sprinkle on the vanilla pudding of my life.”

“If I could have him like this in my dreams every night of my life, I'd stake my entire life on dreams and be done with the rest.”