“

What prospects did I have in the summer of ’68, when I graduated from Midwood High School? If my classmates had known anything about me, I probably would have been voted Mostly Likely to End Up in a Mental Institution.

“

Superstitiously, I would always imagine every conceivable disaster before an event, and I’d drive myself crazy, hoping that would take away any real disaster. How many times in my life have I approached a situation that made me anxious and got so crazy beforehand that reality could never have been so bad?

“

Creating a villainous character is so much more than giving a fictional person a devil-may-care attitude; with it comes a great degree of complexity, which is by no means easy to navigate.

“

We all search for love. From the moment we are born, we search. It is the greatest gift we have to give, and the only single gift we ever truly want and need.

“

“It doesn’t feel right to be without you. We fit. We loved…we love each other.”

“

She decided to build a fence around the entire backyard. Not a white picket one. Not even a wooden paneled one. This was more like a stone wall. Impossible to see over or break down or climb. No one knows why she did it. I don’t know if anyone had even asked.

“

Stillness is dangerous in a novel: when a reader senses a dip in energy or motion, he or she often starts to disengage from the story.

“

June said Prof. Goodman told her I was “the golden boy of the MFA program.” And then she said, “Looking at you, I can see why.”