I had loved so infrequently I felt a debt to those whom I had, for the — Michael Nava

"[Henry, with Katherine Paris] She looked away from me. A moment later she said, "I have never understood homosexuality. I cant picture what you men do with each other." "I could tell you but it would completely miss the point."

"They were empty gestures, the kind it was beginning to seem that these people were full of."

"[Henry Rios, with Aaron Gold] "Every choice closes doors," I said, "and at some point you are left in the little room of yourself. I think most people who get to that room go crazy because theyre surrounded with missed possibilities and no principle to explain or justify why they made the choices they did."

"[Henry, with Katherine Paris] I smiled as charmingly as I knew how. Her hard, intelligent face showed no sign of being charmed."

"[Josh and Henry] "Do you want to?" he whispered. I raised myself on my elbow and said, "Of course I do, but I havent carried rubbers with me since I was sixteen." "Just this once," he said. "You could pull out before - you know." I squeezed his neck between my fingers. "No," I said softly. "Theres AIDS, Josh. Its not worth the risk."

"The room took shape in all its squalor: clothes scattered everywhere; plates of half-finished meals; the long table used as a desk, every inch of its surface covered by moldering documents, books, and sheaves of paper bestrewn with his fathers tiny script."