“She would smile and show no surprise, convinced as she was, the same as I, that casual meetings are apt to be just the opposite, and that people who make dates are the same kind who need lines on their writing paper, or who always squeeze up from the bottom on a tube of toothpaste.”

“When you live alone, you can be sure that the person who squeezed the toothpaste tube in the middle wasn't committing a hostile act.”

“...She looked at the people around her and felt not just that she was surrounded by strangers, but that she herself was strange, somehow, that something kept her from ever fully bridging the gap between who she was and who all these other people, making their way through the very same day, were.”

“…she was discovering once again that reading and writing were not the same — you couldn't just soak it up then squeeze it out again.”

“It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.”

“She needs me. She needs someone who understands and appreciates who she is, and who she’s decided to be. And I need her, because who she is, and who she’s decided to be are—big surprise to me—what I’ve been waiting for all my life.”