“Kira: “Why did Sei choose death? Was it simply to end his pain? Or…No matter what shape he was in or how crazy it was…maybe he wanted to live on forever in Rei…”

“We live what God wants when He wants us to. He withholds joy for a time, then lavishes it all around. He shelters us from pain until He knows we'll live through it. The point is, what matters is this moment. How precious, precious time is. The past had to happen, and we cannot stop the future. Why, then, should we live with a spirit of fear and regret?”

“And the last seven months meant nothing. And his words in the forest meant nothing. And it did not matter if he did not want me. I would never want anything but him, no matter how long I lived.”

“As a child, Richard had had nightmares in which he simply wasn't there, in which, no matter how much noise he made, no matter what he did, nobody ever noticed him at all.”

“ 'Motivation matters,' he said again, 'because why you do something connects to how you do it, who you do it to, or for. And maybe what you see at the end of it-if you're looking that far.' ”

“Stepan Arkadyevitch had not chosen his political opinions or his views; these political opinions and views had come to him of themselves, just as he did not choose the shapes of his hat and coat, but simply took those that were being worn.”