“We live in one world together. It's more important than ever to be friend to all.”

“The most important things are actually the easiest to obtain: great friends, good food, and a decent bottle of wine.”

“Do you ever think about the ocean?" Nick asked me."What about it?" I said."Like what could live down there? Like how there's as much life down there as up here? Maybe more?""God Lives Underwater," said someone. "That's the name of a band. They're awesome.""But seriously," Nick said, "it's like an alternate universe. Right here on our own planet.""Right here, a hundred feet from us," said Sheila."Right here in my hair," said one of the girls who had swum, pulling some sea gunk out of her wet hair.Everyone laughed quietly at that. Nick drank his beer. The wood crackled as it burned. We all stared at the black ocean.”

“Pity would be no more,If we did not make somebody poor.Mercy no more could be, If all were happy as we.”

“I’m dead. I can’t be all right any more than I can be not all right.”

“One day, when I own a house, I'll keep a library full of books. Books are different from other possessions-they're more like friends.”

“And one day I got it. I lifted my head from the child's chest I was listening to and realized, with a shock of relief: whatever is coming, comes. That's what holds it all together. We are all of us here in the mess. There's no way around it. And all that I am in the face of it is a single voice and a pair of hands...Anonymous but necessary. Vital.”