“Mizzy has, again, wandered into the garden, like a child who feels no fealty to adult conversation.”

“Mizzy has wandered into the garden. Carole looks contemplatively at him, says, "Lovely boy.""My wife's insanely younger brother. He's one of those kids with too much potential, if you know what I mean.""I know exactly what you mean."Further details would be redundant. Peter knows the Potters' story: the pretty, unstoppable daughter who's tearing through her Harvard doctorate versus the older child, the son, who has, it seems, been undone by his good fortune; who at thirty-eight is still surfing and getting stoned by way of occupations, currently in Australia.”

“You’re not really an adult at all. You’re just a tall child holding a beer, having a conversation you don’t understand.”

“The youngest child in any family is always a jokemaker, because a joke is the only way he can enter into an adult conversation.”

“Kids who don't eavesdrop on adult conversations are doomed to a childhood of ignorance.”

“I'm just a child who's learned to impersonate an adult.”