“My mother says that some books are good no matter when you read them, and some are good at a particular moment; they come into your life at just the right time.”

“By the way, I'm not usually attracted to danger," I said. "Up until now I've led a pretty boring life." "Boredom is good!" Dr. Rasman looked pleased. "Boredom is why God invented books. Are you still in your book club?”

“Are you going to redye it?" "No. My mother hates it, so I'm going to keep it," I said.”

“Talking to a therapist, I thought, was like taking your clothes off and then taking your skin off, and then having the other person say, "Would you mind opening up your rib cage so that we can start?”

“There is something absent in me, I thought. Something incomplete. Even my mother couldn't describe me. There was something empty in me that in other people was full.”

“The intriguing thing about playing Scrabble is that as soon as the board is set up in front of me, I don't know any words. Other than cat and bat and rat, everything disappears from the language drawer in my brain. My mother, on the other hand, who normally speaks English like a regular person, spells things like qiviut ("wool of the muskox") and hake.”

“Boredom is why God invented books.”