“If silence could break bones, I would shatter right now, into pieces of stomachache and blueprints and desperation.”

“Axes bit wood into pieces and hammers nailed it back together. Humans could never accept the world as it was and live in it. They were always breaking it and living amongst the shattered pieces.”

“If I were standing right beside her, I probably would have heard her heart breaking. It would have sounded like the cracking of a wooden bat connecting with a baseball. No, that was too clean of a break. It would have sounded like rain from a powerful thunderstorm pounding on a tin roof. Millions of drops relentlessly pounding away on the surface until it shattered into billions of tiny pieces. Pieces Emily couldn’t put back together by herself.”

“sticks and stones can only break bones; but words can shatter the soul”

“If I could touch anything in the world right now, it would be your heart. I want to take that piece of you and keep it with me.”

“And right then, deep inside my chest, my broken heart flips at that one word. Inside, all of those tiny shattered pieces start to fit back together at the possibility of a forever with him. I desperately want to believe it's possible. I want to believe I can have this.”