“She didn't know if this excitement was fueled by her ambition to find out something that nobody else knew. Or by the anticipation of finding out.”

“The place in her, though, where her tears should have come from, was rough and dry. No, she didn't find any tears in herself to cry for the storyteller.The storyteller didn't exist anymore.”

“Everybody knew everything now. Or did everybody know nothing? Nobody knew anything... Nobody could know everything.”

“Adults were always quick to tell her how much she looked like her mother, and how little like her father. Though Anna thought that on the inside she was much more like him. There was this strong, unbreakable will in her to fight for something, somwhere. But where? for what? and against whom?”

“Abel lifted her up - another gesture from former times, from when she'd been smaller - and carried her to the bathroom to find the Band-aid. Suddenly, Anna thought, she's growing up. One day, she'll be too big to be carried around like that. One day, he won't be able to hold onto her, she'll move on, and he'll be left all alone. Maybe the responsibility for Micha is more of an anchor than a burden. A lifeboat. A wooden plank to hold onto so you don't drown.”

“The words that I will have to find for that explanation will be sharp and they will hurt, much worse than the thorns of roses.”

“That was how she saw the storyteller for the last time - in an absolutely silent world, in a staircase. He'd hit his target.When she fell into darkness, she knew that she would never see him again.She'd love him to the very end.”