“Just so you know," I begin, "when they say 'Once upon a time'... they're lying. It's not once upon a time. It's not even twice upon a time. It's hundreds of times, over and over, every time someone opens up the pages of this dusty old book.”

“Just so you know, when they say "Once upona time” . . . they’re lying”

“It is so strange, to encounter an ex. It's as if you're in a foreign film, and what you're saying face-to-face has nothing to do with the subtitles flowing beneath you. We are so careful not to touch, although once upon a time, I slept plastered to him in our bed, like lichen on a rock. We are two strangers who knows every shameful secret, every hidden freckle, every fatal flaw in each other.”

“If you want to know someone's story, they have to tell it aloud. But every time, the telling is a little but different. It's new, even to me.”

“I’d much rather pretend I’m somewhere else, and any time I open the pages of a book, that happens.”

“It's just like nurses in a hospital tend to know more than the doctors most of the time; if you really want to get the answers to a question about court, you should spend more time buttering up the clerks than the judges.”

“I don't want to make the same mistake twice. I don't want to tell myself it's over when it's not.”