my favorite clipping from "the edible woman"

"Well, maybe I'm a latent homosexual."
He considered for a moment.
"Or maybe I'm a latent heterosexual. Anyway I'm pretty latent. I don't no why, really. Of course I've taken a number of stabs at it, but then I start thinking of the futility of it all and I give up. Maybe it's because you're expected to do something and after a certain point all I want to do is lie there and stare at the ceiling. When I'm supposed to be writing term-papers I think about sex, but when I've finally got some willing lovely backed into a corner or we're trashing about under hedges and so on and everybody is supposed to be all set for the coup de grace, I start thinking about term-papers. I know it's an alternation of distractions, both of those things are basically distractions you know, but what am I really distracted from? Anyway, they're all too literary, it's because they haven't read enough books. If they'd read more they'd realize that all those scenes have been done already. I mean ad nauseam. How can they be so trite? They sort of get limp and sinuous and passionate, they try so hard, and I start thinking oh god it's yet another bad imitation of whoever it happens to be a bad imitation of, and I lose interest. Or worse, I start to laugh. Then they get hysterical." He licked the sugar from his fingers, thoughtfully.

margaret atwood 2001