"He also realized that Nola was allowing herself to be helped somehow, but whether it was that she accepted this unspeakable gift as beauty, or whether she believed the child's absence would leak the life blood from Landreaux's heart, he couldn't tell."

But I think I know so well the pain we children clutch to our chests, how it last our whole lifetime, with longings so large you can't even weep. We hold it tight, we do, with each seizure of the beating heart: this is mine, this is mine, this is mine.

"Charm is like tinsel without the tree. What's tinsel without the tree? Shredded tinfoil."

"Friendship was witnessing another's slow drip of miseries, and long bouts of boredom, and occasional triumphs. It was feeling honored by the privilege of getting to be present for another person's most dismal moments, and knowing that you could be dismal around him in return."