“Living is very serious, very real. It is also always a game. If we are wise, it is very real, very terrible, and very lovely, and a good deal of fun.”

“She didn't take it well, I guess," Jasper said. "Hard to deliver that kind of news." "No...no, you don't understand. But then you haven't met her." Slowly Rule looked up, relief blooming inside. He felt like he had as a small child, waking from some terrible nightmare to find his father's hand on his shoulder. The sudden bone-deep reassurance wasn't logical, wasn't reasonable. But it was real. "It's okay. It's good. Grandmother is coming.”

“Regrets are the most useless form of guilt. They always arrive too late to do any good.”

“We always want to fix things for the people who matter. Can’t, mostly, but we want to.”

“We aren't guaranteed the time we think weneed to mend fences with those we love.”

“…the same kind of answers the stars are always trying to give us, she thought, when we look up and up at them. So high above, speaking in gradual whispers about time, about their own flaming hearts and the endless cold that lies between…”

“People always wanted someone to blame, didn't they?”