Samantha Sotto

“In my humble opinion, forever is a bitter brew." - Max; Before Ever After ♥”

“Growing old is to be set free, Brother. It is aslow and long-simmering process that extracts from you what you are really made of. But it requires acceptance. You cannot put a flailing chicken in a boiling pot. You must accept the heat and the pain with serenity so that the full flavors of your life may be released.You may see this as decay, and it is. But it is also much more than that. As the body rots, so does the cage that traps us in our worldly concerns. When my legs became too weak to carry my body, I stopped pacing with worry. When my fingers became twisted, I stopped pointing blame. When I lost my sight, I stopped seeing illusions. It may be dark in the pot that I am simmering in, but I can see more clearly than I have ever seen in my life. I can see you, Brother, and I know who you are.”

“Will you let me hold your hand as we outrun reason, brush past elephants, race up steps, tumble down hills, roll in the hay, leap over crumbling walkways, and dangle our legs over ledges?”

“I dream about home.. and it just makes it difficult to wake up.”

“Fretting over how life ends, or anything else for that matter, is a complete waste of time.”

“You can make a child believe a lot of things. Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny... just about anything really, except love. You cannot make a child believe you love him if you don't”

“Life is a strong drink served up in an extremely short, and fragile shot glass. We shouldn't waste a single drop.”

“Growing old is to be set free. It is a slow and long-simmering process that extracts you from what you are really made of. But it requires acceptance. You cannot put a flailing chicken in a boiling pot. You must accept the heat and the pain with serenity so that the full flavors of your life maybe released.”

“The gnomons's shadow falls where it falls - and so do we. Where we are now is where a lifetime's worth of steps have taken us.”

“But I am half a man, wholly in love, and so I have chosen to let you leave me instead.”

“There are other ways to live forever.”

“It appears that you were meant to be mine only for a little while.”

“All choices intersect.”

“That is why I taught you how to trade, because that's what life is - a barter of choices and consequences.”

“Why did I leave you? I loved you too much to stay.”

“I just didn't think you actually had to die to live forever.”

“Dying is not the real tragedy, Shelley.""It's not?""Forgetting is.”

“Things couldn't end if she didn't let them begin.”

“I have every reason to be sad, but I don't have any reason to mourn. People grieve when things end. Nothing has ended tonight. One of us has simply gone ahead as we always knew it would have to be.”

“I didn't want the 'ever' that came after happily. I didn't... don't want to be the one left behind.”

“As the body rots, so does the cage that traps us in our wordly concerns. When my legs become too weak to carry my body, I stopped pacing with worry. When my fingers became twisted, I stopped pointing blame. When I lost my sight, I stopped seeing illusions. It may be dark in the pot that I am simmering in, but I can see more clearly than I have ever seen in my life.”

“You can't return to a place that no longer exists, luv.”

“Meet. Date. Run.”

“A kiss can be dreadfully terrifying for the males of our species, I'm afraid." Rose said knowingly. "Sex is easy. All they really need is a few good thrusts. But when they kiss, they open themselves up and let you in. And that, my dear, makes some men's balls shrink to the size of raisins."Shelley snorted with laughter.Dex strode up to her. "Did someone say raisins? I'm starving.""You might try asking Max for some," Shelley said. "I'm sure he has at least two.”

“Children know when they're loved. It's when you grow up that you're more easily fooled.”

“Antoine knew what it was like to flee, to shed a life as though it were a cloak. He had learned to pack light. The less he had, the less he had to leave behind.”

“Yes, because when I've forgotten everything else, I'll feel that ache... that tightness in my throat... that heaviness in my chest... and know that I loved a woman once and she loved me back. It's proof that I existed and so did she.”

“My dear," Rose said, "you might be surprised at how much happiness you can find in the pages of the shortest love stories. Unlike penises, their length truly does not count.”

“I'm sorry, but you just can't fit fabulous into a backpack.”

“If we accept time for what it is, how it flows and how we flow with it, I doubt very much that would continue wasting loads of it by constantly checking our watches.”

“I said you weren’t inconsequential. No one is. We change at least one person’s life just by being born. If you don’t believe me, go ask your mother. The fellows who write history books may not think that’s so special. I happen to disagree. Isabelle and her family may be long gone, but because they lived, regardless of how small their lives may have been, I believe they are worth remembering, even if only by strangers. - BEFORE EVER AFTER”

“Life is a barter of choice and consequences.”

“... I'll always have something that not even time can take away. Pain. ...because when I've forgotten everything else, I'll feel that ache... that tightness in my throat... that heaviness in my chest... and know that I loved a woman once and she loved me back. It's proof that I existed and so did she.”

“Death is never swift... No matter how those left behind would like to comfort themselves with the thought. -Before Ever After”

“If last night proved anything, it's that life is a strong drink served up in an extremely short - and fragile - shot glass.”