“My childhood was surrounded by trouble, illness, and my dad's alcoholism, but as I said, we just didn't have the time to be impressed by all those misfortunes. I have an idea that the Irish possess a built-in don't-give-a-damn that helps them through all the stress.”

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.. . . nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years.”

“I can be tough, i can be strong,but with you, it's not like that at all.there's a girl that gives a s---behind this wall, you just walk through itand i remember all those crazy things you saidyou left them running through my head,you're always there, you're everywhere,but right now i wish you were here,all those crazy things we did,didn't think about just went with it,you're always there, you're everywhere, but right now i wish you were heredamn damn damn what i'd do to have you here, here, herei wish you were heredamn damn damn, what i'd do to have you near, near, neari wish you were herei love the way you are,it's who I am,don't have to try hard,we always say, say it like it is,and the truth is that i really miss,”

“My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication--it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness--it is all that I have--and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.”

“What's the difference between bulimics and anorexics?" I ask. "Anorexics are anorexics all the time," she says, "I'm only bulimic when I'm throwing up." Wow. She sounds just like my dad! "I'm only an alcoholic when I get drunk." There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away. Penelope gorges on her pain and then throws it up and flushes it away. My dad drinks his pain away. (107)”

“We are all frail-embodied creatures, who at times suffer through injustice, abuse, illness, pain and misfortune.”