“The Board would like to come back and see you tomorrow, Ariana,' she mimicked. 'Any more questions?''Yes,' she answered in the Warden's Irish accent, 'I'd just like to know why I'm such an arsehole.”

“It was like a curse. He was her antidote. She was his poison.”

“There were two choices in life. Survive or succumb. And most people weren’t even conscious of the path they chose. Because they chose for all the wrong reasons. Love, principles, dreams, desire. The world hadn’t changed. It had always been survival of the fittest.”

“In the Community everything was black and white. Here, romantic relationships took on shades of grey; they were full of uncertainty, maybes, broken promises.”

“I heard a choking sound behind me. When I looked back, Cannoli was hanging from the backpack harness with her hind legs circling frantically in the air. She looked like she was riding a bike just above ground level. "Cannoli," I yelled. I unhooked her and made sure she was breathing on her own. When I tried to get her back in the backpack, she whimpered. I talked to her soothingly yet firmly, then tried again. This time she started howling like I was hurting her. People turned and stared as they walked by. "What are you looking at?" I said to one couple. I suddenly felt true remorse for every time I'd stared at a parent with a toddler throwing a tantrum. I made a vow to be a better aunt to Tulia's kids if I ever made it out of this parking garage. I pleaded with Cannoli one more time.”

“It all came down to entitlement, and one's sense of it. Marina, feeling entitled, never really asked herself if she was good enough. Whereas he, Julius, asked himself repeatedly, answered always in the affirmative, and marveled at the wider world's apparent inability to see the light. he would have to show them - of this he was ever more decided, with a flamelike conviction. But he was already thirty, and the question was how?”

“The people in your life are like the pillars on your porch.Sometimes they hold you up, and sometimes they lean on you.Sometimes it's enough to know they are standing by.”