“but sometimes when things go very wrong and even the highest are frightened, innocence is not enough for salvation.”

“Go down." It seemed obvious. "You have to go down before you can come out - that's how these things always work.”

“It was frighteningly close to what he believed of his father at the worst moments - that he really was the kind of man who would send a letter signed "Sincerely, Cpl. Peter Vilmos" to someone he'd seen naked.”

“Sometimes I talk about baseball just to annoy people who don’t understand it.”

“Experience came easily enough, learning how not to suffer would have proved much more practical.”

“Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You'll find what you need to furnish it- memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.”

“Theo knew enough about women and their clothes to recognize she was trying to strike an appropriate balance between... what? Between liking him and hating him? Between wanting to look good and not wanting to look too available? Just because he knew a mixed message when he saw one didn't mean he knew exactly which messages were being mixed”