“Julian shooed Sasha into the other bedroom like a peaceable teenage goatherd. Asking if I needed anything before he said good night. I was taken aback—he reminded me of the boys in school who’d become more polite and high functioning on drugs. Dutifully washing the family dinner dishes while they were tripping, mesmerized by the psychedelic magic of soap.”

—Emma Cline, The Girls, 2016

“AND THEN THE UGANDANS CUT LOOSE WITH THEIR MORTARS. THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO FOR HER. ALL I FOUND WAS A TOOTH. AND TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, MY COPY OF THE RED PONY WAS IN FLAMES. THERE WAS NOTHING LEFT FOR ME HERE. I SET MY COURSE FOR MARIN. THE NIGHT HAD CLEARED, AND THE STARS TWINKLED WETLY, AS IF THEY TOO WEPT FOR THE POOR BRAVE GIRL WHO HAD GOTTEN HER WISH. SOMEWHERE A BELL TOLLED. AND, BROTHER, YOU CAN BET I DIDN’T ASK FOR WHOM!”

—Will Jacobs & Gerard Jones, THE TROUBLE WITH GIRLS, Vol. 1, No. 1, “Meeting Girls,” 1987