“Drawing circles through life struck me as a kind of reasonable insanity.”

“I always liked routine. I suppose I never found boredom very boring. I doubted I could explain it to someone like Margo but drawing circles through life struck me as a kind of reasonable insanity.”

“Maybe the insanity of life had stolen his reason.”

“We had algebra together, right?” “Yeah.” That was two years ago. I only vaguely remember him. Something about circles. “Didn’t you draw perfect circles?”“That’s what I’m known for.” “Really?” Erin goes, all excited about the circles. Jason says, “No, it’s just this one time I went up to the board and I had to draw a circle and it came out really . . . round.” “Which is always a good thing, when you’re drawing a circle,” I say. “Exactly.” Jason smiles at me. “It was more than one time,” I remind him. For some reason, it’s all coming back to me now. “It was more like three or four times.” “What can I say?” Jason goes. “You got me.”Now we’re both smiling.”

“At that moment, beauty itself struck me as a kind of painful melancholy.”

“Draw a circle, not a heart, around the one you love because a heart can break but a circle goes on forever.”