“the past only had whatever power you gave it; life was what you made it and if you wanted something different from what you had, it was up to you to make it happen.”

“No, make something different from war. Don't allow your enemies to be enemies. Make them something else, because otherwise they have a power over you that they should not have. If you think in the same ways as the past, you will only get new versions of the past. Think differently. That's what I'm saying.”

“The truth about autobiographical songs, he realized, was that you had to make the present become the past, somehow: you had to take a feeling or a friend or a woman and turn whatever it was into something that was over, so that you could be definitive about it. You had to put it in a glass case and look at it and think about it until it gave up its meaning.”

“Do you ever want to talk away from your life?... Do you ever think this life is not exactly what you had planned? Do you ever crave something, anything that could wake you up?”

“I don’t know what happened in your past, what he did to you, how he hurt you, but I’m not that guy. The only thing I want from you is you. I would never use you, Clair. I can’t make you trust me, but if you let me, I’ll prove to you that you can. What good is life without taking a chance?”

“if you wanted special things to happen in your life, then you had to damn well get up of your own backside and make them happen yourself.”