“If you were easy, I wouldn’t love you so much.”

She felt tears coming up in her throat, but they stopped there, as if even crying would require too much energy.

Kate was so tired of being worried about, in all its senses. Feared, feared for.

It turned out that in the throes of depression, Kate was a better driver than ever before: she slowed at yellows, never accelerated to merge, didn’t get impatient with traffic.

Everything grows too large in my mind.

Hate, like love, will multiply to fill an allotted space.

Anyway, I’m the librarian, and librarians don’t need baths.”

All the talk these people give about wanting to raise well-rounded children. Natural everything, no chemicals, no dyes, wearing handwoven shawls $200 each. And then they come to me and say breasts are too much for these kids.

“I haven’t had fruits or vegetables in three days,” she told him one day. “I’m going to be the first person in the world to get scurvy from having sex.”