“ignore the pain, play through it.”

“Captain Blood, Robin Hood, Don Juan -Flynn had played them all. Sometimes if the mood struck him, he'd even played them well.”

“Here’s the life lesson I’ve learned, Fifi: Some people are born to play the hero, and some are born to play the bad guy. Fighting your destiny only makes life harder than it needs to be. Besides, people remember the villain long after they’ve forgotten the hero.”

“You remind me of someone with a bad toothache who's hitting herself in the head with a hammer to distract herself from the pain in her mouth.”

“A coaster gives you hope. You can pretty much ride a good one through the worst tragedy life throws at you. You can even ride it through somebody dying, I guess.”

“He wanted to protect her andfuck her and comfort her and destroy her all at once. The chaos of his emotions coiled around his pain,deepening the agony.”

“Something brushed his leg, and he gazed down into the face of Pippi Tucker. The theme from Jaws raced through his head.”