“I can understand not wanting to remain around sad memories. ... Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. Memories and all. ... Might as well stay put.”

“We'll never travel far enough to flee from our sorrows.”

“They say funerals are not for the dead but for the living. Those rites are what permit you to move on, so if you don’t deal with the remains, you can never deal with the memories. That might be true; we may have walked in their dust down on Venice Minor, but it’s not the same as a proper good-bye.”

“How sad it was, Carmen thought, that you acted awful when you were desperately sad and hurt and wanted to be loved. How tragic then, the way everyone avoided you and tiptoed around you when you really needed them. Carmen knew this vicious predicament as well as anyone in the world. How bitter it felt when you acted badly to everyone and ended up hating yourself the most.”

“I want to go where you're going. I'm not scared of dying. I want to stay together and come back together. You said that souls cohere. I want to stay with you.”

“I only know that one day you wake up and realize it doesn't hurt quite so much. Until then you can put yourself in the hands of God- He'll see you through. You can take it from someone who knows, dear. I've found his hands to be an easy place to rest.”

“Try, reach, want, and you may fall. But even if you do, you might be okay anyway. If you don't try, you save nothing, because you might as well be dead.”