“I tell you, Professor, growing up is a full contact sport. Somewhere in our brains, foolishness and naïveté join forces with a false sense of invincibility. Together, they score own-goals against their host’s interests. All this happens while that referee known as ‘reason’ is collapsed in a drunken stupor, unable to stop the madness. When he finally wakes up, all he can do is grant the useless penalty known as ‘hindsight’. But the outcome remains unchanged. The game is lost …”

“Growing up is a trap," snapped Dr. Robbins. "When they tell you to shut up, they mean stop talking. When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing. Reach a nice level plateau and settle there, predictable and unchanging, no longer a threat.”

“And what happens when I finally decide to let him in, and he tells me that he doesn’t feel the spark that I feel?”“Then you Taser him and ask him again when he wakes up.” She laughed.”

“Princess." He smiled up at me, but it was weak. "If i'd known that this is what it would take to get you to hold me, I would've collapsed a long time ago.”

“I knew everything happened for a reason. I just wished the reason would hurry up and make itself known.”

“You can hit my father over the head with a chair and he won't wake up, but my mother, all you have to do to my mother is cough somewhere in Siberia and she'll hear you.”