“By dint of waiting, he hoped his heart would wear out and stop beating. What other way was there to stop loving someone?”

“He heard the opening being shut like a trap, and his heart almost stopped beating, for this was the Fairies’ home…”

“I still loved him. I never stopped loving him, and never stopped hoping that he would fall back in love with me as well.”

“...because he had been waiting for someone to come back to him, so every time someone knocked on the door, he couldn't stop himself from hoping it might be that person, even though he knew he shouldn't hope.”

“He felt his heart pounding fiercely in his chest. How strange that in his dread of death, it pumped all the harder, valiantly keeping him alive. But it would have to stop, and soon. Its beats were numbered. How many would there be time for, as he rose and walked through the castle for the last time, out into the grounds and into the forest?”

“He sits in his car at traffic lights on his way out sometimes and tries to estimate how many times he has sat here, waiting at these traffic lights on his way somewhere without you, hoping to meet someone with the capacity to consign you to an anecdote, to be eventually confused with others”