01. The anticipation and dread he felt at seeing her was also a kind of sensual pleasure, and surrounding it, like an embrace, was a general elation--it might hurt, it was horribly inconvenient, no good might come of it, but he had found out for himself what it was to be in love, and it thrilled him 02. She was often restless to the point of irritability. She simply liked to feel that she was prevented from leaving, that she was needed. 03. But this first clumsy attempt showed her that the imagination itself was a source of secrets: once she had begun a story, no one could be told. Pretending in words was too tentative, too vulnerable, too embarrassing to let anyone know. Even writing out the she saids, the and thens, made her wince, and she felt foolish, appearing to know about the emotions of an imaginary being. Self-exposure was inevitable the moment she described a character's weakness; the reader was bound to speculate that she was describing herself. What other authority could she have? 04. The way you're singing in your sleep, the way you look before you leap, the strange illusions that you keep. You don't know, but I'm noticing. 05. Here's what's not beautiful about it: from here, you can't see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You can see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean, look at it,: look at all those cul-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters 06. Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood. 07. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one 08. "You're only a rebel from the waist downwards," he told her. 09. Most people talk when they have nothing to say. I’m not talking because I have too much to say. None of which I’d want you to hear. 10. I hate those endless descriptions of a heroine's physical attributes. It really bothers me how in books it seems like the only two choices are perfection or self-hatred. As if readers will only like a character who's ideal--or completely shattered. 11. Being alone is not the most awful thing in the world. You visit your museums and cultivate your interests and remind yourself how lucky you are not to be one of those spindly Sudanese children with flies beading their mouths. You make out To Do lists - reorganise linen cupboard, learn two sonnets. You dole out little treats to yourself - slices of ice-cream cake, concerts at Wigmore Hall. And then, every once in a while, you wake up and gaze out of the window at another bloody daybreak, and think, I cannot do this anymore. I cannot pull myself together again and spend the next fifteen hours of wakefulness fending off the fact of my own misery. 
12. I have sat on park benches and trains and schoolroom chairs, feeling the great store of unused, objectless love sitting in my belly like a stone until I was sure I would cry out and fall, flailing, to the ground. 13. Here is something that she says about men and women and love. You know that scene in Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo is standing on the ground looking longingly at Juliet on the balcony above him? One of the most romantic moments in all of literary history? She says there's no way that Romeo was standing down there to profess his undying devotion. The truth, she says, is that Romeo was just trying to look up Juliet's skirt. 14. I was anti-everything and everyone. I didn't want people around me. This aversion was not some big crippling anxiety; merely a mature recognition of my own psychological vulnerability and my lack of suitability as a companion. Thoughts jostled for space in my crowded brain as I struggled to give them some order which might serve to motivate my listless life. 15. His eyes are wild, psychotic slits that bat-dance in your soul, looking for good things to crush or bad elements to identity with. 16. Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.' 17. Their women, they were these big round-titted girls, you would say hello to them and they would just flop on the bed and fuck you; we liked sexual tension, S&M, not fucking. They were barefoot, we had platform boots. They were eating bread they had baked themselves - and we never ate at all. 18. He'd never tell you, but he can play guitar. I think he can see through everything but my heart. First thought when I wake up is, "My god he's beautiful", so I put on my makeup and pray for a miracle. 19. He thinks her friends are jokes. She thinks he’s out of touch. He thinks she drinks too much. She think he thinks too much. It's all another phase, turning the page in the book of growing up. 20. I lower my eyes, wishing I could cry more or care less. Yes, it's true, I was trying to love someone again, I was caught caring, bearing weight. 21. If we were children I would bake you a mud pie, warm and brown beneath the sun. Never learned to climb a tree, but I would try just to show you what I'd done. 22. You're not me, you're a model of freedom. All you need are your kicks when you need 'em. 23. Quick kid quick, so harsh and cynical. Touches stricken, cold and clinical. What a transformation to behold.
But I don't like this new, I want the old. It's not the words that make it final. You've said such things, such things before to rival them. But it's how you say 'em now that's changed. Cold but sympathetic all the same. 24. You can't dwell on what might have been...and it's not fair to condemn him for something he hasn't done. 25. You've been on my mind for a while now, and honestly, you're quite heavy. Please get off 26. So that's how I learned the lesson, that everyone's alone; and your eyes must do some raining, if you're ever gonna grow. 27. You kiss a hell of a lot better than you listen. 28. In cases where everything is understood and measured and reduced to rule, love is out of the question. 29. When I'm all alone, I won't forget you and when you're all alone, don't forget me. Cause I'm on the wrong side of the tracks, but I didn't know until you turned your back. 30. I think music makes you love a person. 31. I felt sorry for him already. This was a screwed up place he'd come to. But he didn't have to know that. Not yet, anyway. There in that room, the world probably still seemed small enough to manage. 32. I'm still here because I've got nothing else to do. You're an asshole, but I'm getting used to you. I like the fact you talk incessantly. You like me so you try and make me feel like shit. I think it's kind of funny, I kind of enjoy it. 33. Some of the most interesting friendships are between people who are attracted to each other, but can't act on it." I have way too many favorites onthis entry. Tell me the ones you like. | 
