“If that isn't typical male stupidity! If something doesn't work, kick it or swear at it!”

“If what you've done is stupid, but it works.. then it really isn't all that stupid.”

“But I don't feel sad about it. Because Mother is dead. And because Mr. Shears isn't around anymore. So I would be feeling sad about something that isn't real and doesn't exist. And that would be stupid.”

“Then I thought, boy, isn't that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad.”

“Just because something didn't happen doesn't mean it isn't true.”

“Sometimes it isn't easy to be sane, smart, and responsible. Sometimes it sucks. Sucks wang. Camel wang. But that doesn't turn wrong into right or stupid into smart.”

“It's not evil, Rand. I know something evil when I smell it. This isn't evil, it's just incredibly stupid.”

“… and yet isn't it always the inappropriate thing, the thing that doesn't quite work, that's oddly the dearest?”

“The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no?
Doesn't that make life a story?”

“Okay," I said, clasping her hand. "I swear it. The next time I do something stupid that might get me killed, you can come along.”