“All the while, Everett felt both the threat of disorder and the steady, thrumming promise of having everything he wanted, all at once.”

“The force with which he wanted it both ways made him grit his teeth. What kind of fool wanted it only one way?”

“At the simplicity of the gesture, he felt a pang: the raw nerve of his loneliness exposed.”

“He was acting like the man he wanted to be, in hopes that he could become him. He would keep acting until he couldn't stand it anymore, and then he would be the man he was.”

“His heart felt dangerously full, for the first time in years. That dried-up battered organ, suddenly flush with love. It could kill him.”

“Chet suddenly wished she had quit teaching the class because of him, that he’d had any effect on her at all.”

“Yvette had never talked about her marriage - she was a smart girl, and she knew you had no right to complain about someone you got all the way to the altar with. You made that choice, even if you were a child when you did it, and the marriage vow was sacred.”