“You said, 'I love you.' Why is it that the most unoriginal thing we can say to one another is still the thing we long to hear? ”

“Why must it be in human nature to hear one thing but to believe in another?""Because we want things to get better," I said. "Otherwise we would all give up.”

“One of the most difficult things to say to another person is, I hope that you will love me for no good reason. But it is what we all want and rarely dare to say to one another – to our children, to our parents and mates, to our friends, and to strangers. Especially to strangers, who have neither good nor bad reasons to love us. And it’s why we tell each other stories that we pray will be transformed in the telling by that angel on the roof, made believable and about us all, no matter who we are to one another and who we are not.”

“I hear you say 'Why?' Always 'Why?' You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?”

“The assertion that you are in falsehood and I am in truth ist the most cruel thing one man can say to another”

“Darling it may be a long time before we see one another again. But I want you to know. Every time I’ve said I love you- I meant it. There’s no two ways about it. The crew was talking about what’s ahead of us, but we all agreed on one thing. We’re coming back.”