“I wondered if all a person could hope for was illusion and luck, for I was forced to conclude that the world was fundamentally and appallingly dangerous. It is a lesson I will never forget.”

“I knew the way lost hopes could be dangerous, how they could turn a person into someone they never thought they'd be.”

“Why is it that the most fundamental life lesson—LIVE!—is the only one I continually forget to put into practice?”

“As soon as I saw him again I could forget all this existed; I would be calm. Was that a definition of love: a force that can drug you with calm and help you forget all the sandpaper realities of the world?”

“Elena's lesson is not one of death and cancer; instead it is one of hope and life. She taught me how to live, how to love, and how to laugh. I will never forget that lesson.”

“ Give up all hope, all illusion, all desire..I've tried. I've tried and still I desire, I still desire not to desire and hope to be without hope and have the illusion I can be without illusions..Give up, I say. Give up everything, including the desire to be saved.”