"I changed the channels. The news was on over and over. They were talking about that goddamned arsonist again. Someone had been setting crack houses on fire over in the black part of town. They had set another one just now. This made eight."

“…I do what has suddenly occurred to me with the bracing clarity of an Arctic sunrise, I break up with him…”

“A writing contest is a lottery for dreamers. It only stands to reason that some cynical practices flourish there.”

"Friendship affords certitude above all, and that is what distinguishes it from love."

“Every day is an offering, and I am giving bits of myself to you. I am overcome with a sudden grief.”

“Much of this is simply a lifelong tendency on my part to notice where the crowd is running and then run in the opposite direction.”