“The arithmetic of love defied intuition: only when given away did it multiply.”

“She was opinionated without being pushy. When choosing a book to read aloud, she would try to interest him in those spunky English heroines she liked so much. He proposed Thucydides, but he understood how she, being a Quaker, did not want to read about the Peloponnesian War. They came together on Henry James.”

“So I've come to the conclusion that it is thus my own fault when these people I have been talking about finally stop saying "Ah" and tell me it's a pity I always do such odd things.”

“I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.”

“Better not to have anything. Not even love. If you got attached to something, it only got taken away. Child or adult. Toys or people. No difference”

“On the one hand, Sylvie loves the feeling of being like everybody else... on the other hand when she feels most like a freak is when shes getting away with not being one.”

“The legends on the tombstones are eventually worn away as the stone is eroded by rain and wind and centuries. Better to slip away quietly after having lived as fully as one can, doing the very best one can with the gifts one has been given.”