I think having the knowledge, plus the experiences you’ve lived through, make you definitely not fragile. They make you brave.
People like to warn you that by the time you reach the middle of your life, passion will begin to feel like a meal eaten long ago, which you remember with great tenderness.
Words matter. All semester, we were looking for the words to say what we needed to say. We were all looking for our voice.
There was no life Dennis burned to live except, it seemed, a life that wasn’t depressed.
Is there anything sadder than the scrawniest little piece of uneaten chicken at a dinner party?”“Hmm,” said Jules. “Yes. The Holocaust.
Until there is no longer the possibility of sadness, of isolation, there can be no gravity. We all float by, rootless, taking clumsy astronaut steps and calling it progress.
The mystery of desire was way beyond the conceptual abilities of Jules Jacobson. It was like … robotics. Just another subject that she couldn’t understand at all.
If someone said ‘diametrically,’ could ‘opposed’ be far behind?
…because when you’re young, you don’t really believe you’ll ever be anything other than young.
After a certain age, you felt a need not to be alone. It grew stronger, like a radio frequency, until finally it was so powerful that you were forced to do something about it.
Wasn’t the whole point of being an artist, or at least part of it, that you didn’t have to wear a tie?
Dennis was present, still present, and this, she thought as she stayed landed against him, was no small talent.
I always thought talent was everything, but maybe it was always money. Or even class. Or if not class exactly, connections.
Jealousy was essentially “I want what you have,” while envy was “I want what you have, but I also want to take it away so you can’t have it.
Twitter,” said Manny, waving his hand. “You know what that is? Termites with microphones.
The generation that had information, but no context. Butter, but no bread. Craving, but no longing.
No, of course not. I just feel content,” she said carefully.“That’s an old person’s word,” said Ethan.
But clearly life took people and shook them around until finally they were unrecognizable even to those who had once known them well. Still, there was power in once having known someone.