“It’s like they don’t even know how to stand beside each other without one groping the other. Their clinginess has always annoyed me.”

“Don’t you see? It’s like we’ve known each other all these years. Without even seeing each other. It’s like there’s been this . . . this ghost relationship between us. You laying out my plectrums on the floor, me buying black-and-white cookies every time I knew you would be coming over. You didn’t know that was me, but it was.”

“I don’t even know what to say to you. (Acheron)Me, either. I guess we’ll just stand here and cry at each other, huh? (Kat)”

“Julie always tried to stand beside me, or talk to me, or in some other way mortify me.”

“How we got together, the lies, the betrayals…we doomed ourselves before we ever started. We love each other so much…and we don’t trust each other at all.Was it even possible to stay together? Maybe we shouldn’t. Love…wasn’t always enough. And love without trust…was that even love?”

“All the Kamals were fluent in irritation. They loved each other but were almost always annoyed by each other, in ways that were both generalised and existential (why is he like that?) and also highly specific (how hard is it to remember to put the top back on the yoghurt?).”