“Everything's a game,' Sagan said. 'When you get down to it. Everything in life is ultimately some kind of strategy. If you have a better strategy than the other guy, he's going down.”

“I know you guys have some sort of weird thing going on, with that game you play and everything—""It's called a friendship.”

“Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' In other words, love is a dominant strategy.”

“They're around back," she calls down when Julie and I get out. "Planning their strategy." "Good for them," I say, confident that no strategy that isn't grounded in chaos theory is likely to work against a man like me.”

“I’m not suggesting the world is good, that life is easy, or that any of us are entitled to better. But please, isn’t this the kind of thing you talk about in somber tones, in the afternoon, with some degree of hope and maybe even a handful of strategies?”

“He knew he could always be smart later, if that turned out to be a better strategy. But once you admitted to being smart, there was no going back.”