“Some days, moments meet you like a ton of bricks. This was one of them." - Eliza Mills, "This Girl Climbs Trees”

“Why can't a girl just want to know stuff and not do stuff?”

“Some people believe that to find happiness, you should live each day of your life as if it's your last because that way you will appreciate every single moment you have. Other people believe that you should live each day as if it's your first because then every day can be the beginning of a new journey.”

“Alexander and I sat together on a backyard swing. "This is like a dream come true," Alexander said as we gently swung back and forth. "We can finally just focus on us now. Continue the traditional 'Boy meets girl, girl falls for boy, boy turns out to be a vampire' story.”

“Begin. Keep on beginning. Nibble on everything.Take a hike. Teach yourself to whistle. Lie.The older you get the more they'll want your stories.Make them up. Talk to stones. Short-out electricfences. Swim with the sea turtle into the moon. Learnhow to die. Eat moonshine pie. Drink wild geraniumtea. Run naked in the rain. Everything that happenswill happen and none of us will be safe from it. Pull up anchors. Sit close to the god of night.Lie still in a stream and breathe water. Climb to thetop of the highest tree until you come to the branchwhere the blue heron sleeps. Eat poems for breakfast.Wear them on your forehead. Lick the mountain's bare shoulder. Measure the color of days around your mother's death. Put your hands overyour face and listen to what they tell you.”

“Have you seen Marcus?" he asked his ugly friend."Yes, he was stoping some people in the Violet Room from climbing the curtains.""What for?""They were not professionals.""Oh.”

“The time of testing, and of playing, was over. This was the final duel for one of them. Now they were fighting for their lives--for the one life that would emerge from this elegant battle. . . . For the moment the two of them were evenly matched, arm against arm. Michael prayed that it would never stop, that there would always be this moment of utter mastery, beautiful and rare, and no conclusion ever be reached.”