“This is the best thing about men's friendships: most any awkwardness can be ignored by mutual agreement and, true connection being unimaginable, you can get on with the easier business of parallel living.”

“...don't worry about how things look. People are going to think whatever they think. To hell with 'em. You can't worry about it.”

“I had a childish attraction to men of my father's generation, as if I still harbored a faint hope of being unorphaned, even at this late date.”

“The rest-the vast majority, tens of thousands of days-are unremarkable, repetitive, even monotonous. We glide through them then instantly forget them. We tend not to think about this arithmetic when we look back on our lives. We remember the handful of Big Days and throw away the rest.We organize our long, shapeless lives into tidy little stories...But our lives are mostly made up of junk, of ordinary, forgettable days, and 'The End' is never the end.”

“no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed”

“I admit--no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed-”

“So I got on with the business of lawyering away at the evidence. Minimizing it. Defending Jacob.”