“I believe in black holes. I believe that as the universe empties into nothingness, past and future will smack together in the last swirl around the drain.”

“I believe that as the universe empties into nothingness, past and future will smack together in the last swirl around the drain. I believe this is how Thomas Stone materialized in my life. If that's not the explanation, then I must invoke a disinterested God who leaves us to our own devices, neither causing nor preventing tornadoes or pestilence, but a God who will now and then stick his thumb on the spinning wheel so that a father who put a continent between himself and his sons should find himself in the same room as one of them.”

“There wasn't any point in dwelling in the pain of the past, not when the future could hold suck pleasure.”

“He wrote in the fly leaf: Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est! "That means 'Knowledge is power!' Oh, I do believe that, Marion.”

“Impending death had a way of unexpectedly unearthing the past so that it came together with the present in an unholy coupling.”

“I was angry with myself because I still loved her, or at least I loved that dream of our togetherness. My feelings were unreasonable, irrational, and I couldn't change them. That hurt.”

“Call me old-fashioned," Deepak said, "but I've always believed that hard work pays off. My version of the Beatitudes. Do the right thing, put up with unfairness, selfishness, stay true to yourself... one day it all works out. Of course, I don't know that people who wronged you suffer or get their just deserts. I don't think it works that way. But I do think that one day you get your reward.”