Gradually, the darkness sculpted itself into air and object, the appointments of her room materializing as smoky shapes: a skyline of perfume bottles on her dresser...

His cheeks were all pinked up. Travel agreed with him, and she might have known: people like Quinn, always running from themselves, loved the road.

But even talented people, sooner or later, cracked their heads against their own personal ceilings.

He had not loved his son enough. This knowledge lived like a malignancy on his heart.

Convince is for thought; persuade is for action. You couldn’t convince me that taping my horrible old-lady voice was a good idea, but you persuaded me to do it anyway, didn’t you, you little dickens?

They were on a first-name basis now, united in female solidarity after a twenty-minute conversation about cats. How women cemented alliances over less than nothing impressed him anew.

Because the story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don’t they teach you anything in school?

Because the story of your life never starts at the beginning.

Certain things, examined in the frozen light of retrospect, were simply unforgivable. He.

It does take time. From the day I laid eyes on her, I wished Miss Louise Grady could just once look at me and see me. For years I kept that twinkling chance like a jewel in a box. That’s what unrequited means.