“How much easier it would have been if he and Sandy could have fought: a skirmish in the night, some harsh words, some measure of the truth actually spoken aloud.”

“And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.”

“So a voice in the mountain is enough to let loose an avalanche. A word too much may be followed by a caving in. If the word had not been spoken, it would not have happened.”

“For the first time, his wife was waking up in his arms...And if he'd known how it would feel to have her there, his heart bursting out of his chest and his throat so full and tight that he couldn't have spoken a word if he'd wanted too, Thom would never have been able to pass a single night away form her. He didn't know how he ever would again.”

“Dying would have been so much easier.”

“If a measurement matters at all, it is because it must have some conceivable effect on decisions and behaviour. If we can't identify a decision that could be affected by a proposed measurement and how it could change those decisions, then the measurement simply has no value”