“Women define themselves by their relationships and men define themselves by whom they are helping. Women believe value is created by sacrifice. If you are willing to give up your favorite activities to be with her, she will trust you. If being with her is too easy for you, she will not trust you.”

“Men believe value is created by accomplishment, and they have objectives for the women in their lives. If awoman meets the objectives, he assumes she loves him. If she fails to meet the objectives, he will assume she does notlove him. The man assumes that if the woman loved him she would have tried harder and he always believes his objectives for her are reasonable.”

“A woman needs to be told that you would sacrifice anything for her. A man needs to be told he is being useful. When the man or woman strays from that formula, the other loses trust. When trust is lost, communication falls apart.”

“Women believe that men are, in a sense, defective versions of women, Men believe that women are defective versions of men. Both genders are trapped in adelusion that their personal viewpoints are universal. That viewpoint—that each gender is a defective version of theother—is the root of all misunderstandings.”

“If you’re going to create, create a lot. Creativity is not like playing the slot machines, where failure to win means you go home broke. With creativity, if you don’t win, you’re usually no worse off than if you hadn’t played.”

“Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrationalthings in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is theprinciple behind lotteries, dating, and religion.”

“If you try to look up my skirt, I'll poke needles in your eyes right through your eyelids while you're asleep.''I'm looking for help, you give me nightmares, thank you so much.'She was on the top step now, reaching up for a bin marked DRY BEANS. Rigg looked up her skirt, mostly because she told him not to, and saw nothing at all of interest. He could never understand why Nox and other women, too, were always so sure men wanted to see whatever it is they concealed under their clothes.”