“What came next is very hard to tell. Indeed, I have told it but once before, when I needed to, and I will tell it this time only becaude it forms a strand in the fabric of my story, and it wove itself into what came after.”

“I made up my mind to tell Joe about what was going on at home after the funny business about Molly's letter. As I went to sleep I imagined myself telling Joe even about the the funny marble feeling that came over me from time to time. Then I remembered a lot of the whopping lies I had told Joe about my mother and father.”

“I don't know how it all at once came to me to talk a lot, tell jokes, kick up, and suddenly have views. When it was time to have them, there was no telling how I picked them from the air.”

“I used to work for this guy before I came here...He used to tell me that ‘never’ is the word God listens for when he needs a laugh.”

“You came back fighting and furious at me. You told me you'd been looking for mermaids, and I interrupted you. [...] I said that next time, you had to take me with you.""Was there a next time?""Well, you tell me, you don't need water to feel like you're drowning, do you?”

“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”