“I want to look at you as you kill me.”

“Every journey starts with a small step, every wave a ripple.”

“If I had known all the things you didnt want me toI would have worried more about you but I would not have walked awayBeautiful man with the freckles underneath the tanUnderstanding underneath the grin I would not have walked awayYou couldnt have got rid of me back thenNot even if you triedCause I couldnt wait to really be your friendI always thought that wed have timeNow I look up, I think I see you in a silvery cupTrying to tell us that weve cried enough but I dont want to walk awayYoure with me in a way that you will always be And I hope that you feel freeI know this world is never gonna be the sameIm gonna keep saying your name I dont want to walk awayYou cant get rid of me that fastIll come and find you in my dreamsYoure a part of all things that last All the way to eternity”

“There then occurred the first and only paranormal incident of my marriage. Charlie shifted in his sleep, opened his eyes, looked at me and, without preamble, said, “You have to forgive yourself for killing that boy.” . . . “For your own sake but for mine, too,” he was saying, and his voice was hoarse from sleep yet also certain and insistent. “If you don’t forgive yourself, you’re making that accident too important, you’re making him too important.” Charlie paused. “And I want to be the love of your life.”

“Later on, when I tried to imagine how I might have ruined things, that would occur to me - that I'd so rarely resisted, that I hadn't made it hard enough for him. Maybe it was like gathering your strength and hurling your body against a door you believe to be locked, and then the door opens easily - it wasn't locked at all - and you're standing looking into the room, trying to remember what it was you thought you wanted.”

“This desperate aversion to seeming like you wanted anything, or worse, to going after it, stayed with me for years after I left Ault.”

“I wanted to hold happiness in reserve, like a bottle of champagne. I postponed it because I was afraid, because I overvalued it, and then I didn't want to use it up, because what do you wish for then?”