“I suppose it's everyone's fate to be reduced to quaintness by those younger than themselves.”

“I suppose it's more unnerving to be a boy than a girl,' she conceded.'It's the boys who have to make fools of themselves.”

“Asleep, he looked a lot younger than going-on-seventeen, but I had noticed that Johnny looked younger when he was asleep too, so I figured everyone did. Maybe people are younger when they are asleep.”

“It's one of those songs that everybody knows, but you are not supposed to do, because everyone does it, only no-one does it, because you're not supposed to do it, because everyone does it....if you follow that....”

“Everyone I meet now is at least ten years younger than me. I feel like Rip van Winkle with a bald spot.”

“Accordingly, the one respect in which I depart from my younger self is that I now regard those people who have little or no story to tell themselves as terribly fortunate.”