I wonder if he’d been as beautiful as Dante. And I wondered why I thought that.

The heart can get really cold if all you've known is winter.

The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain.

Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.

I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.

Water was something he loved, something he respected. He understood its beauty and its dangers. He talked about swimming as if it were a way of life.

I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone's hand.

How could I have ever been ashamed of loving Dante Quintana?

Summertime. It was a song. It was a season. I wondered if that season would ever live inside of me.

The day he came home from the hospital, he cried. I held him. I thought he would never stop.I knew that a part of him would never be the same.They cracked more than his ribs.

You can’t expect to go both ways when you’re driving on a one-way street.

But to mourn, that's different. To mourn is to be eaten alive with homesickness for the person.

The first thing I am going to tell my successor is, don't trust the military men – even on military matters." JFK

A puzzle is not a dead-end.

Serious spiritual practice is more than serene walks in the woods, lit candles and incense. You have to be committed. You have to be willing to enter into your own darkness and transcend it.

Just living is not always living. Look at your life. Can you call it a blessing? Can you call it a gift? A present of existence? Would you want this life to be given to you again and again?

It's a wonderful way to live, and not a bad way to go, either. The average Frenchman is still smiling three months after he's dead.

If you think anyone is sane you just don’t know enough about them. The key — and this is very relevant in our case — is to find someone whose insanity dovetails with your own.

I cannot say who, precisely, came up with the idea of a Stone Age family.

What are you talking about, Sin? You don't want anyone to own you... Or your heart?' She laughed bitterly, and entered the Harrowgate. 'I don't have a heart for anyone to take.