“When Flynn was drinking, the sun shone brighter, evening breezes were cooler, the stars were fatter and more dazzling. And there were fewer problems for all concerned.”

“There were no stars, or if they were they shone like volcanic glass.”

“Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom.”

“And it didn’t matter how many songs or poems had already been written about them, because whenever he thought about the girl, the stars shone brighter. As if she were the one keeping them illuminated.”

“Fewer candles flickered. Fewer words were spoken. Fewer breaths were taken.”

“Blasts from the past were like the rooms one entered and re-entered in dreams: they would not stay nailed down. When you returned to them, they had changed - they suddenly had more space or a tilt or a door that had not been there before. New people were milling around, the floors undulated, and the sun shone newly, strangely in the windows, or through the now blasted-open ceiling, or else it shone not at all, as if having fled the sky.”