“For men, I think, love is a thing formed of equal parts lust and astonishment. The astonishment part women understand. The lust part they only think they understand.”

“I think part of being a parent is trying to kill your kids.”

“Men! She could not understand why so many women feared them. Hadn't the gods made them with the most vulnerable part of their guts hanging right out of their bodies, like a misplaced bit of bowel? Kick them there and they curled up like snails. Caress them there and their brains melted.”

“I think you're a taker. You've always been one. It's like God left some part of you out when He built you inside of me.”

“Has it ever occurred to you," he said abruptly, "that parents are nothing but overgrown kids until their children drag them into adulthood? Usually kicking and screaming?"I shook my head.Tell you what I think," he said, "I think that part of being a parent is trying to kill your kids.”

“I'm sorry I didn't know it was an elephant; I thought it was part of the furniture!”

“I think of John saying thatWharton killed the Detterick twins with their love for each other, and that it happens every day, all overthe world. If it happens, God lets it happen, and when we say "I don't understand," God replies, "I don'tcare.”