“The last living boy in America drops into my bedroom only he wants to be a monk. I think that pretty much sums up my life.”

“That pretty much sums up our relationship: I have it. He wants it. He gets it. He ruins it.”

“I think it's very pretty.Can it be pretty if no one thinks it's pretty?I think it's pretty.If you're the only one?That's pretty pretty.And what about the boys? Don't you want them to think you're pretty?I wouldn't want a boy to think I was pretty unless he was the kind of boy who thought I was pretty.”

“Do you think the Bible is accurate? I mean, do you think it's real?" "I think Pastor Calvin is hot. In a fortysomething way. That pretty much sums up my religious conviction.”

“He was not what he made up his mind to be. A man was the sum of his limits: freedom only made him see how much so. America was no America.”

“I wouldn't want a boy to think I was pretty unless he was the kind of boy who thought I was pretty.”