“But he doesn’t love her. I invented that. It is a plot if you imagine people in love – the lazy looping criss crosses of love, blows, stares, tears. No. It doesn’t happen. No love. People meet, touch, stare into one another’s faces, shake their heads clear, move on, forget. It doesn’t happen.”

“But he doesn’t love her. I invented that. It is a plot if you imagine people in love – the lazy looping criss crosses of love, blows, stares, tears. No. It doesn’t happen. No love. People meet, touch, stare into one another’s faces, shake their heads clear, move on, forget. It doesn’t happen.”

— Joyce Carol Oates