“Derek, you just don't say things like that to a woman. Keep going this way and you'll spend your life alone.""Don't change the subject. Andrea is cool. And she smells nice. It will be okay."Apparently I was supposed to sniff people to determine their competence. "How do you know?"He shrugged. "You just have to trust her.”

“If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you'll spend your life completely wasting your time. You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing thing you don't like doing, which is stupid.”

“You don't ever really let go, though. You don't stop. You don't stop hurting, you don't stop loving. It doesn't go away, you just keep living and eventually shit gets pushed into the background of your life so it's not consuming you every day. And then one day you know you're okay. It still hurts, you still miss that person. And yeah, you forget the details. The way she smelled, the way her mouth tasted, how her skin felt, the sound of her voice. It's almost like a different life, a different person that loved her, was with her. But on a day-to-day level, you know you're okay. Sort of.”

“How do you compete with a ghost, Colton?" I whisper the question into a long silence.He shrugs. "I don't know. You don't. You just understand that there's a part of you that you can't give away, because it belongs to a dead person. I don't know.”

“And you know,you really have made your point with Aaron and Mia. You don't have to keep him around to keep hanging out with the royals.”"Why do I keep getting the feeling you don't like him anymore?”"I like him okay—which is about as much as you like him. And I don't think you should get hot and sweaty with people you only like 'okay'.“Lissa widened her eyes in pretend astonishment. "Is this Rose Hathaway talking? Have you reformed? Or do you have someone you like 'more than okay'?”"Hey" I said uncomfortably, "I'm just looking out for you.That, and I never noticed how boring Aaron is before.”She scoffed. "You think everyone's boring.”"Christian isn't.”

“How do we know we're not people in a movie?' she asked.I looked at her not knowing how to reply.Mama, [...] how do we know that things are real?'Great. Now we have a junior existentialist in the house.Well, we don't know. We just have to hope that what we think is real is real.'But how do we know?' she asked, insistently.Ah, a scientist, who wants empirical evidence.We don't know. We just have to hope.'Mama, how do we know things aren't a dream? You know, how sometimes life feels like a dream? Do you ever feel that way?'Yes, sweetie, I feel that way all the time.”