“What was education for, if not to acquire contradictions? At least it looked like that to me. ”

“Jane gave Heffie an anxious look. It said "Please forgive me." It also said "What is your problem?" and "Have a nice day" Pleasantness was the machismo of the Midwest. There was something athletic about it. You flexed your face into a smile and let it hover there like the dare of a cat”

“I looked in vain for LaRoue, my cruelty toward her now in me like a splinter, where it would sit for years in my helpless memory, the skin growing around; what else can memory do? It can do nothing; It pretends to eat the shrapnel of your acts, yet it cannot swallow or chew.”

“though what bird in the best of circumstances does not look a little stricken?”

“They looked like frogs who’d been kissed and kissed roughly, yet stayed frogs.”

“There were moments bristling with deadness, when she looked out at her life and went, "What?" Or worse, feeling interrupted and tired, "Wha—?”

“Nothing's a joke with me. It just all comes out like one.”