“I understand that art is a necessary component of a civilized society, but you cannot just go around shooting people. That's going to be a problem.”

“Great art is difficult," Caleb said. After a few moments, he said, "But I don't understand why it has to be so difficult sometimes.”

“You are very sweet," she told him after a year of dating, as they shared dessert at a restaurant, "but it's like your family trained you to react to the world in a way that was so specific to their art that you don't know how to interact with people in the real world. You act like every conversation is just a buildup to something awful.”

“These weird thoughts come into my head, and I don't even really want to think about it, but I can't let go of it until I take it as far as I can, until I reach some kind of ending, and then I can move on. That's what writing is like for me.”

“Up to this point, all I knew were beaten paths, tattooed with footprints, and I had come to the understanding that they were not much fun to travel because so many people were waiting for you at the end, wondering what took you so long.”

“What do you think I'm going to do?" she asked him. "Whatever it is," he answered, "I think you'll be terrified when it happens. Don't let that stop you.”

“People would call him Professor Fang, which sounded so much like a super villain that he wasn't sure he could go through with it.”