“I can be funny, because I have time to meditate about how to be funny, and I can repair my mistakes when I perform mistakes, and I can be a melancholy person in manners that are interesting, not only melancholy. With writing, we have second chances.”

“We stand in silence for another moment and I realize how lucky I am to have someone I can be myself around in all my melancholy glory.”

“I sometimes react to making a mistake as if I have betrayed myself. My fear of making a mistake seems to be based on the hidden assumption that I am potentially perfect and that if I can just be very careful I will not fall from heaven. But a 'mistake' is a declaration of the way I am, a jolt to the way I intend, a reminder I am not dealing with the facts. When I have listened to my mistakes I have grown.”

“I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly”

“How can that not leave you bruised somewhere? How can thatnot turn you into the sort of person liable to break into little bits when your first love goes all wrong?What came first, the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was Imiserable because I listened to music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?”

“I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.”