“It seems impossible that she could have liked someone like Mitchell when there was someone like this guy in the world, someone tall and lanky, with tousled hair and startling green eyes and a speck of mustard on his chin, like the one small imperfection that makes the whole painting work somehow.”

“It seemed like someone was always leaving someone, like that's the way the world worked—people were born and people died, people left and people came. It was like the world was saying you can't have everything you want at the same time.”

“What are the chances you’d ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? The math seemed impossible.”

“The world, I sometimes think, is filled with someone liking someone who likes someone else who likes someone else.”

“I wanted to talk to someone. But who? It’s moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest.”

“I like someone who laughs, but not all the time, and not too loud. I like it when someone laughs at the world, and not at someone in particular — when some particularly absurd thing happens, not just someone falling down.”