“...how many writers still dare compare a woman to Nature, like Campion? - there is a garden in her face - how lovely...”

“It occurred to him that seeing a woman's child is like seeing a woman naked, in the way it changes how her face looks to you, how her face becomes less the whole story.”

“I want Toy to know that I know. That no matter how many boys tell her they love her, how many boys tell her she's beautiful, how many boys crawl into her window at night and make love to her, it doesn't help. That I know it doesn't help. She is my sister and I love her. Like I want her to love me.”

“How become a writer? Naturally.”

“And how different her face looked the first time she really liked a boy who was not on a poster on her wall. And how her face looked when she realized she was in love with that boy.”

“I'm in love. And I like how that feels. And I hate how that feels. Because love is an invention of fiction writers.”