“You must do something to make the world more beautiful - Ms. Rumphius”

“The most crippling part of my personality is that as much as I want to know something, I can't bear admitting I'm ignorant. It's as if I think I should have been born knowing and understanding all. As if when I say out loud, what are you talking about? the world will point and jeer.”

“He felt blind and deaf, the way he did when he was close to a good idea but couldn't tap into it. He'd told Lizzie about that feeling once, and Lizzie had said, "That just means you aren't very smart, Reeve. Smart people have good ideas without having to be blind and deaf first.”

“But sometimes, in tight corners, when your back is against the wall and the world is against you, you have to fight back in unexpected ways.”

“You must get hurt a lot," he murmured. She looked at him in surprise."Why do you say that?" "Because you don't hide anything. You put yourself out there for the world to like or dislike.”

“She was healthy & thriving, like a weed: a weed with no interest in trying to become, say, a proper flower.”

“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.”