“I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better.”

“But she needs me more than she needs him and I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better.”

“I guess I was better at loving then, too, and also better at being loved — the two go together.”

“Everyone loved a good reader. And he'd always loved being a great reader - until recently. Maybe it was just part of getting older, or maybe it was being a librarian, or just being here, but lately he'd found he was becoming suspicious of his own love of books. All that reading - it had started to seem wrong, worthless almost, without purpose.”

“And maybe I'm a liar and I do need it, because being kissed by Josh Bennet is kind of like being saved. It's a promise and a memory of the future and a book of better stories.”

“Maybe being loved wasn't enough; maybe there was something else you needed not to get in trouble.”