“Friends, I was pretty sure, lift their friends up; they don't weigh them down like a sack full of stones”

“I have a theory that as long as you have one good friend, one real friend, you can get through anything.”

“But then I think about where knowing somebody has gotten me: nowhere. No. someplace worse than nowhere, because when you’re nowhere I’m pretty sure you feel nothing.”

“But here's something that I know about friendship: Sometimes the right thing to do is to not point out that your friend hasn't touched her chicken fingers or French fries and not point that maybe she's just overreacting. Instead, you just smile and sit with her and say, "I understand" when really, you don't understand her at all.”

“Don't worry about the finish line. Don't question what you're doing. Just quiet your mind and keep up the pace.”

“Harper, I..."You don't have to say it."I don't?"I know."You know what?"I lean against him, nestling in the crook of his arm. I talk into his neck. I don't need to be able to see to find the parts of him I know.That morning in the trailer, when we had it to ourselves, and you made me breakfast, I wondered whether you would tell me you loved me, if you'd ever tell me, and I looked at you, and I thought you were going to say it, but instead you went off on a tangent about boysenberry jam."And?"And it was funny. And it was close enough to the real thing for me. Just sitting there with you like that."Boysenberry jam?"Boysenberry jam."Harper," he whispers into my hair.Yeah?"I boysenberry jam you.”

“They're just words. And words alone don't really mean anything. It's what you feel and what you believe when you say them that matter.”