“Your first kiss is destiny knocking.”

“He had been my almost. My might-have-been.I was afraid of what I wanted most - His kiss. Still, I collected kiss stories. -Susie Salmon”

“As if in the other side of his kiss there could ve a new life”

“Our only kiss was like an accident- a beautiful gasoline rainbow.”

“Since their first kiss in our kitchen two weeks after my death, I had known that he was - as my sister and I had giggled with our Barbies or while watching Bobby Sherman on TV - her one and only. Samuel had pressed himself into her need and the cement between the two of them had begun to set immediately. They had gone to Temple together, side by side. He had hated it and she had pushed him through. She had loved it and this had allowed him to survive.”

“My name was Salmon like the fish, first name Susie.”

“I was the girl he had chosen to kiss. He wanted, somehow to set me free. He didn't want to burn my photo or toss it away, but he didn't want to look at me anymore, either.”