“It is indeed possible to be widely read, as I am, and still have black holes in one's knowledge.”

“So,” she says slowly, reviewing my case item by item, “you like ice holes, sinkholes, peepholes and blowholes?” I nod. “But not loopholes?” I nod again. Hole this, hole that – even when I’m determined not to just be myself, I’m such an asshole. I just can’t help it.”

“I am feeling much better now. I am fairly certain it was your letters that kept me alive.”

“Some days I am all about the ironic gesture”

“Everywhere around me, already I see cliques, the kinds of cliques you see in schools everywhere: jocks, troublemakers, mathletes, you name it. Me, I am in a clique unto myself, the sole member of the group called "crazy.”

“Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all...But is it? Is it really better to know a thing you love only to lose it?If I'd known then what I know now...But that's the thing, isn't it? When you're living a thing...you don't know. You take it for granted, like a dog being petted, assuming it will somehow go on forever.If I'd known what I know now...I'd have touched everything in sight, everything I could get my hands on. I'd have grabbed the nearest girl I could find and not even caring how crazy she thought me, touched my hands to her face just to know what that feels like.Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?I, never having loved before, have no real answer to that question.”

“He almost died," I pointed out. "Not that I have any other experience of it, but I would guess that when people almost die, their worth automatically goes up, at least to some small degree.”