“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.”

“You can’t help who your parents are or aren’t. My parents aren’t—they don’t exist and have never existed.”

“I can’t stand this, Pigeon. I feel like I’m going crazy.”I threw out my hands and let them hit my thighs. “You can’t stand what?”“If you sleep with him, I don’t wanna know about it. I’ll go to prison for a long time if I find out he...just don’t tell me.”

“If you can’t understand the spec for a new technology, don’t worry: nobody else will understand it either, and the technology won’t be that important.”

“And people who don’t dream, who don’t have any kind of imaginative life, they must… they must go nuts. I can’t imagine that.”

“Good God, you don’t give up.”“Nope.”I laughed, couldn’t help it, and hissmile spread in response to the sound.“I’m sure there are plenty of girls whowant to go out on a date with you.”“There are.”“Wow. Modest aren’t you?”“Why should I be?” he shot back.“And I want to go out on a date with you.Not them.”