“In a sense,’ Foucault concluded with a flourish, ‘all the rest of my life I’ve been trying to do intellectual things that would attract beautiful boys.”

“Like all planets, I turn in my sleep, I’ve been doing it since before I was born. My body is a nightmare it hurts me every day. I’ve been taught to resent it by boys trying to forge themselves righteous through conquering. They knew there was something wrong with me, it was explained through hands that spoke only in exclamation points.”

“I’ve found the things I’ve regretted most in my life are the things I wanted to do but never had the courage to try. And I’m beginning to think I don’t want you to become one of my what-if-I’d-only-tried-it regrets.”

“I tried not to laugh. Landon had been my friend since the sixth grade, but he was a boy, and boys made no sense to me...”

“I do struggle because I’m attracted to beautiful things, yet at the same time I am actually very aware, in some sense, their lack of value and that the most important things in life are your connections to other people.”

“Livia, you make the rest of the beautiful things in the world cry for even trying at all.”