“We’re as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we’re not likely to do either.”

“Ultimately what I like about reading together is that we all make it happen together. Of course even amid shared experience we’re still alone… each reading of each book is unique. But what a comfort it is to share readings and experiences. How lucky we are when we get to be alone together.”

“The things that hurt us are often the things that help us, and the whole dichotomy between creation and destruction is totally false, I think. We live in a universe that seems committed to making and unmaking all that is possible, you know?”

“It hurt, and that is not a euphemism. It hurt like a beating.”

“You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.”

“Yeah, so if that guy can make it in drunk, surely we can make it in sober. I mean, we’re ninjas.''Well, maybe you’re a ninja,' I said. 'You’re just a really loud, awkward ninja,' Margo said, 'but we are both ninjas.”

“Like, in general I think people have very complicated reasons for wanting things, and we often have no idea whether we’re actually motivated by altruism or a desire to hook up or a search for answers or what. I always get annoyed when in books or movies characters want clear things for clear reasons, because my experience of humanness is that I always want messy things for messy reasons.”