“You can only take steps toward the future you want. It's not guaranteed to be there.”

“If you stay on the sidelines of the here and now then your future will only ever be a pale version of a dream you never had the courage to experience.”

“You take your flashlight out on your walks, right?” Simon asked.“Depends on the moonlight.”“From now on, take it with you every night. When you’re outwalking this way, you’ll pass the gazebo, where, chances are, I willbe smoking.”“Then what?”“You can signal—say, three times if you want to take a walk withme. Twice if you want to walk alone. that way I’ll just let you walkon. It’ll be like a military code. No one gets hurt.”I laughed. “that’s silly and charming.”“I try. I can signal back with my cigarette lighter too,” Simonsaid, holding up the lighter and firing off three short bursts offlame. “So, like, if I see you first and I happen to not wish to talk toyou, I can fire off two bursts and block you in your tracks.”

“Believing is never a waste of time." Simon looked at me intently his eyes flickering. "Even if you're wrong you could have been right. Take me with my painting I don't know if I'm any good. So maybe I shouldn't try because maybe I'd be setting myself up for disappointment. But it's like you looking for old coins on the beach. Whether you find any or not is for bonus points it's the search that counts. It's the belief that they might be out there.”

“Putting yourself at risk...that was the only path to anything meaningful. The biggest risk was in not taking a risk.”

“See what fun it is to do what Simon Says?” Simon teased,drawing closer toward me.”

“You think you know everything that's happening around you. But you can't always see clearly when your staning right there in the picture.”