Then she asked me if I wanted to know something, and without waiting to find out whether I did or not, she told me. - Richard Yates

exchanging agreeable remarks for no other purpose than to keep silence from closing in.

then he came back and faced her again, trembling. "'Nice,'" he said. "'Nice,' Is that what you want? You want the world to be 'nice'? Because listen, baby. Listen, sweetheart. The world is about as nice as shit. The world is struggle and rape and humilation and death. The world is no fucking place for dreamy little rich girls from St. Louis, do you understand me?"

I expect you'll miss your friends. I don't really have any friends; not real ones. Anyway, we'll make new friends.