“He wanted to heave the glasses against the wall. Break them, break everything he could reach. Beat it, rend it. He stared out the window, imagined the city in flames, consumed to ashes. And still it wasn't enough.”

“Not everything is about beating your head against the wall until it breaks.”“Just most things.”

“He and his wife loved each other and brought each other daily pain. Everything else he was doing in his life, even his longing for Lalitha, amounted to little more than flight from circumstance. He and Patty couldn't live together and couldn't imagine living apart. Each time he thought they'd reached the unbearable breaking point, it turned out that there was still further they could go without breaking.”

“If you beat your head against the wall, it is your head that breaks and not the wall.”

“Wasn't there a spell for making yourself happy? Somebody must have invented one. How could he have missed it? Why didn't they teach it? Was it in the library, a flying book fluttering just out of reach, beating its wings against some high window?”

“New hair, new clothes-the classic relationship break-up makeover," Jake said.Delaney stared at him for a beat. In a way, he was right. She was breaking up with Sam. He just didn't know it.”