“Bring to me, it said, continual proof / you've been alive.”

“Now and again I feel the astonishment of being alive like this, in this body.”

“I love what's left after love has been tested.”

“Originality, of course, is what occurs when something new arises out of what's already been done.”

“That time I thought I was in loveand calmly said sowas not much different from the timeI was truly in loveand slept poorly and spoke out loudto the walland discovered the hidden geniusof my handsAnd the times I felt less in love,less than someone,were, to be honest, not so differenteither.Each was ridiculous in its own wayand each was tender, yes,sometimes even the false is tender.I am astonishedby the various kisses we’re capable of.Each from different heightsdiminished, which is simply the law.And the big bruisefrom the long fall looked perfectly whitein a few years.That astounded me most of all.”

“ConnubialBecause with alarming accuracy she’d been identifying patterns I was unaware of—this tic, that tendency, like the way I've mastered the language of intimacy in order to conceal how I felt— I knew I was in danger of being terribly understood.”

“I've triedto become someone else for a while,only to discover that he, too, was me.”