excerpts, Ray LaMontagne "Jolene"

I still don't know what love is.

--Ray LaMontagne

excerpts, Counting Crows: "Gonna Get Me a Little Oblivion"

I got bones beneath my skin, and mister...
Theres a skeleton in every mans house
Beneath the dust and love and sweat that hangs on everybody.
Theres a dead man trying to get out
Please help me stay awake, Im falling...
Asleep in perfect blue buildings
Beside the green apple sea
Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby
Try to keep myself away from me

--"Perfect Blue Buildings"

excerpts, Saul Bellow, "It All Adds Up"

"At least we can stop misrepresenting ourselves to ourselves and realize that the only thing we can be in this world is human. We are temporarily miracle-sodden and feeling faint."

--Bellow, "The Sealed Treasure"