“A butterfly does not mourn the passing of its former caterpillar, nor a snake, the shedding of its former skin.”

“Men like to share outrageous stories with one another - embellishing the keenness of our instincts and exaggerating the metallic compounds that make up our genitalia, or "brass balls" as they say.”

“And then there was that stupid social networking system, how it had just seemed like the most convenient vessel for the average narcissist. How I’d despised those who couldn’t eat a meal without prodding through their glowing portable Internet devices, searching for some tasty piece of gossip, or perhaps just something to complain about.But that social network had become an overnight epidemic—I’d watched as the daily ways in which we’d lived our lives became molded to fit this shallow instrument. It was a vast change—whether it was social evolution or de- evolution, I wasn’t quite sure; but before I knew it, by society’s standards, it was I that had become the social leper.”

“There's something aboard that thing, a dark and powerful figure. And it awaits the coming of something--something terrible.”

“It's easy to hate and point out everything that is wrong with the world; it is the hardest and most important work in one's life to free oneself from the bonds of fear and attachment.”

“Wisdom does not make me full. It fills me with hunger.”

“I'm thirty-six years old and I've been married once and he left and I don't want to feel this way anymore. Like I can't be vulnerable. Can't relax. It's exhausting, always being on the defensive, keeping my guard up. I feel like Cuba.”