I peeked in the bag. Do you know what was in there? I’ll tell you what was in there: a collapsible tray table. Is there any sadder purchase in this fucking world? Maybe a CD...

And I will never again underestimate the power of anticipation. There is no better boost in the present than an invitation into the future.

In the cage, you feel loved, not trapped. Just like me.

The problem with books is that they end.

I don’t feel sorry for myself, Beck. Lots of people have shitty parents and roaches in the cabinets and stale, raw Pop-Tarts for dinner and a TV that barely works and a dad who doesn’t...

In my defense, I love the book in a postmodern kind of way where I’ve always sensed that it contains something that I relate to. I think it’s the kind of book that echoes my...

I fold my hands under my head and tell the books all about you. They listen, Beck. I know it sounds crazy, but they do.

That’s the problem with this never-ending centipede of lemmings, Beck. You know they’re all pussies, each and every one of ’em. They buy these books to get scared because their lives are too easy. How...

The only thing crueler than a cage sosmall that a bird can’t fly is a cage solarge that a bird thinks it can fly.

Your lips were made for mine, Beck. You are the reason I have a mouth, a heart.

If we were teenagers, I could kiss you. But I’m on a platform behind a counter wearing a name tag and we’re too old to be young.

But the most important thing I know is that I want the possibility of you more than the reality of [her].

And [Benji] cheats on you, Beck. A lot. Compulsively. He is in intense pursuit of a performance artist who fucks with his head the way he fucks with yours.

And then it happens, the most dreaded response in the world, more terse than any word, more withholding than a “no,” and strictly verboten for someone as in love with language and me as you...