“ The soap in the bathroom, the flowers in the garden, the book on the bedside table are all strong symbols of a life in progress. You look at these details and a world unfolds.”

“You need to understand that love isn’t all romance and flowers and great sex, Violet.” I raised my eyebrows, but she didn’t stop. “Real love takes work and effort and time. Real love is willing to wait while you sort your shit out, and is still there once you get your head on straight.”

“It is often while you are looking for something else entirely that you make the most amazing finds.”

“I couldn’t help but laugh when Landon’s round eyes met mine again. This was my life. A leopard print couch, a David Beckham look-alike, two lesbians, and a Felix the Cat clock. Sure, it wasn’t the JumboTron at Safeco Field, but it was by far the most romantic thing I’d ever experienced.”

“It is better to do what you love for work, but if it is your day job that enables an unpaid passion, then your life is still sweeter. What is important is that you make time for your dreams, not whether or not you get paid for it.”

“Habit enables us to cling to the familiar, to the self we think we know with a persistence almost irresistible. An anodyne for the terror of the unknown, it effectively keeps us from knowing, and is fatal in itself. Habit is a fiction the organism requires to dim perception. It screens us from the world, and from the true world of the self. Habit—no matter how intense the suffering it causes—is the last thing the personality will give up. It is arming itself against danger. The weapons may be more painful to use than the pain they seek to deflect. No matter. Habit allows us to live—by which Proust means it allows us to exist while it simultaneously compels us to miss Life.”

“I looked at the fashion model and reassured myself she wasn't dead.”