“Even if you find him. Even if he didn't leave you on purpose, he can't possibly live up to the person you've built him into."It's not like the thought hasn't occurred to me. I get that the chances of finding him are small, but the chances of finding him as I remember him are even smaller. But I just keep going back to what my dad always says, about how when you lose something, you have to visualize the last place you had it. And I found―and then lost―so many things in Paris.”

“Perceval spends twenty years wandering in the woods, looking for the thing he had found, that was given to him, that seemed so easy, that was not. Later, when things were difficult for me with my work and I felt that I had lost or turned away from something I couldn't even identify, it was the Perceval story that gave me hope. There might be a second chance...in fact, there were more than two chances-many more. I know, after fifty years that the finding/losing, forgetting/remembering, leaving/returning never stops.”

“And it was because of their long history that he searched for something to say, something that would get them back to where they had been.All that came to him was...I miss you. I miss you so fucking bad it hurts, but I don't know how to find you even though you're right in front of me.”

“Maybe . . . because for the first time . . . there was a chance I could keep him,” I say.“So now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?”“Put you somewhere you can't get hurt.”And when he kisses me, people in the room actually sigh.”

“Dad, youre so far off the mark I can't even...Lincoln hasn't pressured me at all!" I grabbed my bag and heaved it onto my back. "WE'RE JUST FRIENDS! He's not even interested in me like that - and thanks to you," I shook my head at him in utter disbelief, "he never will now.”

“I thought all the way back to when I was a kid, not being able to tell anyone, not even my parents, about who I really was. I never had anyone to talk to, and I never looked to anyone to talk to -- because I didn't want to talk about it. If you're young and questioning and not able to voice it in safety, find a gay person in your community who you trust and respect, and get to know him and talk it all through with him. Find the big brother or the parent that you don't have at home and ask him to guide you and help you sort out all the emotions.”