“Is there anything you can’t do?”“Plenty, Mrs. Proffitt. I just don’t dwell on them.”

“Hey, don’t do this to yourself Layla. I mean it. They weremeaningless, one night stands, trysts and fleeting romances. They can’t even hold a candle to you. You’re the only girl for me. It’s like every otherwoman in the world ceased to exist the moment I laid eyes on you. Please don’t dwell over this baby. Promise me you will just forget them becauseit’s about you and me now. No one else.”

“In spite of the problems he was having he was going on with his life. There are thousands who don’t or won’t or can’t and plenty of them aren’t in prison either.”

“I kept thinking that. I don’t know why it is I can’t seem to learn that a woman’ll do anything.”

“Where’s jazz going? I don’t know. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.”

“I think I just don’t like names. Basically, I can’t see what’s wrong with calling me ‘me’ or you ‘you’ or us ‘us’ or them ‘them.”