But most people pass over incrementally, making a series of perforations in the membrane between here and… — Susanna Kaysen

When women are angry at men, they call them heartless. When men are angry at women, they call them crazy.

Is this the type of friend or lover I want to have? I ask myself every time I meet someone new. Charming but shallow; good-hearted but a bit conventional; too handsome for his own good; fascinating but probably unreliable; and so forth. I guess I've had my share of unreliable. More than my share? How many would constitute more than my share?

One of my teachers told me I was a nihilist. He meant it as an insult but I took it as a compliment.