She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.

I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty... you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.

Probably for every man there is at least one city that sooner or later turns into a girl. How well or how badly the man actually knew the girl doesn’t necessarily affect the transformation. She was there, and she was the whole city, and that’s that.

I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.

Father said I have no sense of humor at all. He said I was unequipped to meet life because I have no sense of humor.

You take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac—with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.