“Literature is the ditch I'm going to die in. It's still the thing I care most about.”

“I like to write about the solitary things people do. Humans seem to function best when they're alone.”

“Marriage is anti-romantic - husband and wife are terms like 'turkey' and 'goose.' Worse, they denote ownership.”

“My parents and my sister died... very close together, and after that, I lost quite a bit of my sense of humor. Most of it I think has kind of come back, but I know there was a time when I didn't think things were funny anymore. I kind of think they're funny again.”

“After fifty years of living it occurs to me that the most significant thing that people do is go to work whether it is to go to work on their novel or at the assembly plant or fixing somebody's teeth.”

“It's funny but... you're sort of a moving target for fortune and you never know when it will befall you.”

“Giving freaks a pass is the oldest tradition in Montana.”

“They were unironic enthusiasts for all the mass pleasures the culture offered: television, NASCAR, cruises, Disney World, sports, celebrity gossip, and local politics. Szabo often wished that he could be as well adjusted as Melinda's family, but he would have had to be medicated to pursue her list of pleasures.”

“Literature is the ditch I'm going to die in. It's still the thing I care most about.”

“Quinn wanted to make her see that people didn't live like this”