“My day had already had a good dose of bitterness, and I preferred to keep it from getting any sadder.”

“I never had any preference for her, any more than I have a preference for breathing.”

“I prefer a world with many beliefs and religions.It stimulates my faith to keep growing day by day.”

“And I had forgotten to get more Sweet’N Low, so I had to drink coffee as bitter as I am.”

“I was supposed to be meeting someone, but they had to cancel. After I’d already gotten here, of course,” I explain, bitterness dripping from my voice.“Want me to kick his ass?” he asks. I look up at him and he’s grinning at me over the top of his glass.“No. You might be embarrassed when she gets the better of you.”

“My mother by then had already begun her own decline, her own transformation, hardening into a bitter rind of a woman who pushed through the stations of her day as though each moment were unpleasant duty; as though the currencies of joy had become so inflated they could no longer purchase anything of worth.”