“All daring and courage, I said, All iron endurance of misfortune, make for a finer, nobler type of manhood.”

“All this family shit! Harry said. How can you reinvent your life if the original versions won't leave you alone?”

“A person without her or his own truth ain't a person at all, Ida said. Anybody who tells you different—is a jackass, and no longer deserves to be called human being.”

“Life is a mess, Rose said. You can fix the mess human beings make, Rose said, But you can't fix the mess being human is.”

“You know, Rose said, You're not the first man in history who thinks his cock is the path to wisdom. You're not the first man to make his hard-on into the Holy Grail.”

“That's when you stop being one way and start being another, Ruby said. Not something many people can do, or want to do. In fact, Ruby said, The only people who cross over, cross over because they're on some kind of Mission Impossible.I could no longer live and stay the way I was, I said.”

“To admit ignorance is the highest knowledge. It is the necessary condition for all learning.”