“Books aren't like broccoli. You don't have to eat it because it's good for you. Books drag you in because they are fascinating.”

“You get through bad things - I know, enough bad things have happened to me already. But I don't think getting through one bad time makes it any easier to deal with the next one. If anything, it's worse, because there is happiness to remember.”

“Have you noticed how every tree is different here? All twisted by the wind and snow, but if that was all, they should have been twisted in the same way. It's as though every tree has made up its own mind exactly how it wants to grow.”

“At least in a book I am away from my body for a while. But I want to do things, not just read about them. I want my life.”

“Life should be good - Life should be very, very good - and the only duty we have to the dead is to make it good for ourselves and other people.”

“Maybe everyone is crazy up in these mountains. Maybe the air up here makes you absurd, the scent of flowers and rock and snow. And I've never spoken like that to anyone in my life before. You're my only friend here, you know that? And you're fifty years away.”

“Dance, my darling dance! If you dance then death can't catch you! Nothing bad can touch you! Dance!”