"I needed something--the distraction of another life--to alleviate fear."

"Why do I sense hostility on your part, Patrick?” she asks softly, then sips her wine. “Maybe because I’m hostile,” I spit out. “Maybe because you sense this."

"I'd get confused and write down things just to write them down and I came to this realization that I didn't do enough things to keep a datebook."

"You do not write a novel for praise, or thinking of your audience. You write for yourself; you work out between you and your pen the things that intrigue you"

"Fear never shows up and the party ends early."

"I am gripped by an existential panic."

"Women aren't very bright," Rip says. "Studies have been done."

"From those of us who are left behind: you will be remembered, you were the one I needed, I loved you in my dreams."

"What? Did we end up hating each other? Did we end up the way we thought we always knew would? Did I end up wearing khakis because of that fucking ad?"

"Why was I holding on to something that would never be mine?" (But isn't that what people do?)"

"How is your father?” she asks disinterestedly. “A contrivance,” I mutter. “A plot device."

"When you love a book it loves you back."

"I'm on the verge of tears by the time we arrive at Pastels since I'm positive we won't get seated but the table is good, and relief that is almost tidal in scope washes over me in an awesome wave."

"The numbing lists of things you were supposed to have as an American to make you happy, which ultimately, of course, don't. Those aren't the things that make you happy."

"By the time you finish reading this sentence, a Boeing jetliner will take off or land somewhere in the world."

"Do you wear a diaphragm everywhere you go?' I want to scream, but stop myself because the idea really excites me."

"There is no time for the innocent."

"A vast and abandoned world laid out in anonymous grids and quadrants, a view that confirmed you were much more alone than you thought you were, a view that inspired the flickering thoughts of suicide."

"And," Price adds, smiling, "if another round of Bellinis comes within a twenty-foot radius of our table we are going to set the maitre d' on fire. So you know, warn him."

"Nothing. Nothing makes me happy. I like nothing," I tell her."

"Everything suddenly seems displaced, subtle gradations erase borders, but it’s more forceful than that."

"I'm thinking about the beautiful boy on the treadmill wearing the I STILL HAVE A DREAM T-shirt and realize that it might not have been ironic."

"If you can’t make a girl come why even bother? That always seemed to me to be like writing questions in a letter."

"What's the difference between a J.A.P and spaghetti? Spaghetti moves when you eat it."

"I could stay living in this city if they just installed Blaupunkts in the cabs."

"Her need is so immense that you become surrounded by it; this need is so enormous that you realize you can actually control it, and I know this because I've done it before."

"You're a beautiful boy, Clay, but that's about it."

"This isn't a script," Julian says. "It's not going to add up. Not everything's going to come together in the third act."

"You should never mistake affection for … passion,” I warn her. “It can be … not good. It can … get you into, well, trouble."

"Scientists peered into data and concluded that we should all be worried. -Lunar planet"

"You can't get dyslexia from pussy."

"I'm proud of everything I've done."

"In the NFL a lot of times everyone gets caught up in the business side of things. For them it's all about money and it really leaves a sour taste in your mouth."

"I accomplished so many things, so early in my career."

"Injuries obviously change the way you approach the game."

"I don't worry anymore about where's the big hangout Tuesday night, Friday. Couldn't tell you and no one comes to me for advice anymore in those areas anymore, so real boring I would say."

"My intention... isn't to create controversy."

"God, he deals you blows that at sometimes you think you can't handle and in the last year there have been things that we thought we couldn't handle but we've dealt with it up until this point."

"In spite of reports about playing with various teams, I'm enjoying retirement with my family and have no plans to play football."

"Yip cabbage on three!"

"I know I can still play, but it's like I told my wife, I'm just tired mentally. I'm just tired."

"It's a difficult job to do, but that is why we do it. Only so many people can do it. But it, it enables you to... for a brief period of time to kind of get away. You have to go back and deal with, but it's a good escape."

"I knew I needed surgery and I didn't want to have it and I ended up having it."

"With each game I play, each season I play, everyone would agree with me, I'm running out of chances."

"Well family is obviously the most important. There was a time when I thought football was the most important."

"The town, the team, it's a family. That has helped. For some people who have had to deal with some of the problems I have had to deal with don't have football as an out."

"Maybe I'm old-school, but I always thought you honor a contract."

"The party now is having my kids laugh and my wife laugh and my teammates. I want them to see me have fun and put it in a different way."

"I grew up a Saints fan, an hour from the Superdome."

"Nothing, for the most part, surprises me anymore."