“[Graffiti] gets erased and painted over, and maybe it's even more beautiful because we know it won't last.”

“Talk about getting off tangent. My mother's friend may have just killed his wife and my parents are sitting there talking about cows.”

“He doesn't seem to mind at all that he's stupid about math.”

“Everybody in this room is bored.The poems drag, the voice and gestures irk.He can't be interrupted or ignored.Poor fools, we came here of our own accordAnd some of us have paid to hear this jerk.Everybody in the room is bored.The silent cry goes up, 'How long, O Lord?'But nobody will scream or go berserk.He won't be interrupted or ignored.Or hit by eggs, or savaged by a hordeOf desperate people maddened by his work.Everybody in the room is bored,Except the poet. We are his reward,Pretending to indulge in his every quirk.He won't be interrupted or ignored.At last it's over. How we all applaud!The poet thanks us with a modest smirk.Everybody in the room was bored.He wasn't interrupted or ignored.”

“It's the kind of story we learn over and over again about everything in the world: your life starts out as a wild open frontier that you explore until the forces of time or history or civilization or nature intervene, and then suddenly it's all gone, it all weathers and falls down and gets built over; everyone dies or moves away or becomes a grainy photograph, and yes, at some point you just get fat and fall off a streetcar. Progress--it dumps you on your aging and gigantic ass!”

“We are here because over billions of years, countless variables fell into place, any of which could have taken another path. We are essentially a beautiful fluke, as are the millions of other species with which we share this planet. Our cells are composed of atoms and dust particles from distant galaxies, and from the billions of living organisms that inhabited this planet before us.”

“I'm going to ask Bree if she'll help me.""I'm a little scared if her," I admit."Me too," Ally says, then laughs. "Maybe it's because she's so beautiful. Don't you think she's the most beautiful girl you've ever seen?"I shake my head. "I've seen prettier.""You have not.""I have." It takes all my courage to look up."Oh," she says, and then blushes furiously.”