“My head's filled up with all the reasons it won't work. And I keep running the figures, over and over, but I can't seem to come up with an answer.”

“Yeah. That boy over there. He’s my friend.'My gaze followed his pointing finger toward a little boy wearing a stuffed steering wheel attached around his waist and running around a racetrack laid out on the floor. 'Oh, yeah? What’s his name?''I don’t know.' Simon shrugged, unconcerned, and headed back to the playground.I watched him leap right into the game with a friend whose name didn’t matter.”

“There's nothing that says you can't change." "Not even if it changes everything else?" I shook my head. "Not even then.”

“I won't say it's okay, because it's not. If you want to break up with me, Elle, then do it. But I'm not going to make it easy for you.”

“I feel the weight of his gaze all over me, covering me like a blanket.”

“I never think of nothing. The closest I come to a blank mind is when I am counting, fucking, or drinking. The rest of the time, my thoughts are like a hamster on a wheel, running endlessly but getting nowhere.”

“Sometimes when things break, you can hold them together fora while with string or glue or tape. Sometimes, nothing will holdwhat’s broken, and the pieces fly all over, and though you think youmight be able to find them all again, one or two will always bemissing.I flew apart. I broke. I shattered like a crystal vase dropped on aconcrete floor, and pieces of me scattered all over. Some of them Iwas glad to see go. Some I never wanted to see again.”