“How can he love being... that? Being what Caine is?""Because he's an asshole," she says. "You must have noticed.”

“What was interesting about being the needy one was how much in love you felt...He'd lost the ability to be an asshole. Now he was smitten, and it felt both tremendous and scary.”

“But how he acts, and what he says, and what he does, and who he is, they don't line up anymore, and the lie is in that not lining up, the lie is in not being what she needs but pretending that he is. No one says a word, and she sees it every minute they have together.”

“What could I say? Noah, despite you being an asshole, or maybe because of it, I'd like to rip off your clothes and have your babies.”

“He is mad about being small when you were big, but no, that's not it, he is mad about being helpless when you were powerful, but no, not that either, he is mad about being contingent when you were necessary, not quite it... he is insane because when he loved you, you didn't notice.”

“Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.”