“Was our life together that unbearable?”

“And one of our consuming diversions as we age is to recite, not only to others but to ourselves, our own story.”

“Not that happiness is dull. Only that it doesn't tell well. And of our consuming diversions as we age is to recite, not only to others but to ourselves, our own story.”

“The discovery that heartbreak is indeed heartbreaking consoles us about our humanity.”

“Still, I may have been glad to scratch the dry surface of our day-to-day peaceableness the way Violetta had clawed the sere crust on her limbs, anything to get something bright and liquid flowing again, out in the open and slippery between our fingers.”

“The good life doesn't knock on the door. Joy is a job.”

“Though surely to avoid attachments for fear of loss is to avoid life.”