Tom Perrotta

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It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence

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Sooner or later we all lose our loved ones. We all have to suffer, every last one of us

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He knew for a fact that it was possible to fall and just keep falling

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Within a couple of weeks of starting the Ph.D. program, though, she discovered that she'd booked passage on a sinking ship. There aren't any jobs, the other students informed her; the profession's glutted with tenured old men who won't step aside for the next generation. While the university's busy exploiting you for cheap labor, you somehow have to produce a boring thesis that no one will read, and find someone willing to publish it as a book. And then, if you're unsually talented and extraordinarily lucky, you just might be able to secure a one-year, nonrenewable appointment teaching remedial composition to football players in Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the Internet's booming, and the kids we gave C pluses to are waltzing out of college and getting rich on stock options while we bust our asses for a pathetic stipend that doesn't even cover the rent

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I’ve matured. I have a much higher tolerance for boredom