“All losers are romantics. It's what keeps us from blowing our brains out.”

“Asked what his artistic purpose was: "There is no purpose. We do whatever we do. You either blow your brains out or get on with something."”

“If you want to kill an intellectual, don't blow his brains out, hire him as a clerk.”

“If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.”

“Cannot keep you out my brain”

“What strategy does the brain use to read itself out?”

“What shall we do, all of us? All of us oassionate girls who fear crushing the boys we love with our mouths like caverns of teeth, our mushrooming brains, our watermelon hearts?”

“We feel our shell keeps us safe, but it crushes us and others, and keeps out light and sun.”

“It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.”

“Dead woman are not romantic,' Sophie said flatly.

'Okay, she's not dead,' Phin said. 'The bear ate her, and she came her brains out.”