“Because you are young and free and one with the jungle. You are mortal, but instead of clinging to the hope of immortality, you embrace each day, one at a time, and never worry about tomorrow.”

“You think that nothing matters as long as you're together, that nothing can harm you two or come between you because you're somehow protected by your feelings for one another.-Uncle Antonio”

“No one should live forever," I whisper. "Isn't that how it goes? There must be a balance. No birth without death. No life without tears. What is taken from the world must be given back. No one should live forever, but should give his blood to the river when the time comes so that tomorrow another may live. And so it goes.”

“You won't tell?""I'll add it to the box under my bed labeled 'The Secret Confession of the Immortal Pia'. Good Lord, girl, don't look so mortified. There's not actually a box.”

“He said that seeing and understanding are two different things. Our eyes show us one side of an object, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t five other sides we can’t see. So why thrust your eyes? Why live your whole life thinking that just because you can’t see every side to something, those other sides don’t exist?”

“Love makes you weak. It distracts you from the important things. It can make you lose sight of the objective.-Uncle Paolo”

“Maybe reason is neater and more orderly, but nonsense is freeing.”