Thumbsucker
Neil had sucked his thumb since infancy and the summer he turned thirteen, his father, Mike, and his orthodontist, Perry Lyman, tried to get him to quit. …
On thumbsucking: "The appetite was neither thirst nor hunger but seemed to include them both. It could come at any time." And later: "The effect when the thumb touched my lips was subtle and encompassing. Because I sometimes watched myself in a mirror, doubling my sense of self-communion, I know how I looked at the moment of closure."