“He said, "People wait their whole lives for the kind of happiness we have.”

“Happiness is a dog sunning itself on a rock. We were not put on this Earth to be happy. We were put here to experience great things.”

“Well," I said, "I have to go."He said, "Can I call you?"I waited a long time before answering, though not, of course, as long as he'd made me wait. I let him stand there with the question in the air while I took a good long look at him, let him stand there while I stepped to the street and raised my arm for a cab. At exactly that moment, as though dispatched by some god I didn't really believe in anymore - the god of drama or god of perfect things - or maybe by my own fairy god god, a cab came. I got in, and closed the door.”

“You smell like a bar," he said.I thought, You smell like a library. But I wanted to have sex right then, so I said, "You smell like a poem.”

“I said, "It's not like that." I wanted to convince her. I said "We think alike." Oh, my dear," she said. "A man thinks with his dick.”

“No," he said, and he snapped his fingers. "You'll come work for me at K----. And be a real associate editor."I said, "I could bring you up on charges for that.""What?""Work harassment in the sexual place.”

“He loves New York, he says. 'It's like Oberlin--it's where people who don't belong anywhere belong.”