“Sometimes,” he said after a second that lasted a million years, “things get broken. And they can’t be fixed.”

“The first ten million years were the worst," said Marvin, "and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.”

“Sometimes things get broken and people make mistakes. It's just what happens. And then, if you're lucky, they get fixed again, before it's too late.”

“Maybe it needed to be broken. Sometimes things have to break before you can fix them.”

“The thing about Wes," Delia said to me, unwrapping another package ofturkey, "is that he thinks hecan fix anything. And if he can't fix it, he can at least do something with thepieces of what's broken.”

“What it love, you ask. Dear child, love is like the light and there are two kinds, the bursting fireworks of the moment and the solid, fixed stars that sometimes become obscured in the heavens, but are always there, year after year, for a lifetime. You must experience the first in order to appreciate the second.”