Take a seat, Charlie,” he said. “I’ll kill you in a few…

“The thing about hitting bottom is that, in the middle of it, sometimes you don’t know if you’re really hitting bottom or just bouncing…

— Frederick Weisel

“There’s an old adage: the sensation of drowning reminds you of everything you ever knew about swimming.”

— Frederick Weisel

“Seth lay on a sofa. His large dirty work boots were defiantly planted on the sofa cushion, all his energy focused on smoking a…

— Frederick Weisel

“The problem with escaping is that we leave behind us, even among those we love, different versions of the truth and everything we couldn’t…

— Frederick Weisel

“Aren’t autobiographies born in a question we ask ourselves: how did I get to this point? Don’t we look back over the path and…

— Frederick Weisel

“People are complicated,” she said. “Didn’t they teach you that in biography school?”

— Frederick Weisel

“At first, he talked about the flowers in the garden behind his country house in Surrey. His voice still had its Midlands accent but…

— Frederick Weisel

“No single act is entirely redemptive, but all a fallen man has is the first step back.”

— Frederick Weisel

“If they’re together long enough, every couple has one conversation over and over. This was ours.”

— Frederick Weisel

“Nico’s hair was combed straight up, stiff with mousse, the tips dyed the color of traffic cones.”

— Frederick Weisel

“Every American autobiography, someone once said, is about one thing—escape. Look into the frightened heart of an American life, and you’ll find a compulsion…

— Frederick Weisel

“Anita Kleinman was a slight woman in her seventies. Her hair was thinning and white with a touch of pink, and was swept back…

— Frederick Weisel

“Sometimes we do terrible things to the ones we love just to see what harm we can cause.”

— Frederick Weisel

“What spares us is memory,” he said. “It’s what makes us worth saving. However low we sink, whatever promise we no longer fulfill, we…

— Frederick Weisel

“Sometimes, however much you plan, however many precautions you take, something happens, and in a minute the world is changed. After that, you’re the…

— Frederick Weisel