Ugh. Cliches like that are the bane of English Lit. students; way too much of classtime was us coming up with retorts to the original phrases, you have no idea. [His lips quirk for a moment, remembering better times spent shit-talking books with other students in English class, picking apart language and putting it back together. He's good at that. Or he was. He hasn't had much of a chance to do that sort of thing lately.]

The saying is 'no man is an island', but I'll point out now what I used to back then: islands are already being touched, just by the ocean, not other land. [He drops his gaze to his coffee, focusing overly-hard on stirring creamer into his mug.] Guess that takes on new dimensions since oceans make me wanna hurl these days. My AP English teacher woulda loved the irony of it all.