“It's not so much that I mind listening to her stories. Everybody likes to have an audience - that's why most people have kids, isn't it?”

“Everybody who is alive is a survivor, and everybody who is dead isn't," I said."So everybody alive must have the Survivor's Syndrome. It's that or death. I am so damn sick of people telling me proudly that they are survivors!”

“Maybe that's why people have friends at all. Not because they like them so much but because they don't make them feel so much worse.”

“When you're a kid, they tell you it's all... grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid, and that's it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.”

“People tailor their life stories for particular audiences. The recipient or audience for a story may crucially influence the stories form. Audiences are both social and intrapsychic – we have internalized private audiences.”

“My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind...and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow.”