“In reality, Lacy realized, this dividing line between her and Peter had beenthere for years. If you kept your chin up, you might even be able to convince yourself there wasnothing separating you. It was only when you tried to cross it, like now, that you understood howreal a barrier it could be.”

“Everyone knew that if you divided reality by expectation, you got a happiness quotient. But when you invert the equation - expectation divided by reality - you didn't get the opposite of happiness. What you got, Lewis realized, was hope.”

“it was possible to grow up in an instant, that you could look down and see the line in the sand dividing your life now from what it used to be.”

“I kept hoping, silently, that you would want to save her like you hadn't been able to save yourself.”

“when you want something so desperately, you shake with the need for it. you tell yourself that you don't need more than one sip, because it's just the taste you crave, and once it's on your tongue you will be able to make it last alifetime. you dream of it at night. you see a thousand mile-high obstacles between where you stand and what you want, and you convince yourself you have the power to hurdle them. you tell yourself this even when, leaping the first block, you wind up bruised and bloodied and flattened.”

“Why hadn’t he realized this before? Everyone knew that if you divided realityby expectation, you got a happiness quotient. But when you inverted the equation-expectationdivided by reality-you didn’t get the opposite of happiness. What you got, Lewis realized, was hope.Pure logic: Assuming reality was constant, expectation had to be greater than reality to createoptimism. On the other hand, a pessimist was someone with expectations lower than reality, afraction of diminishing returns. The human condition meant that this number approached zerowithout reaching it-you never really completely gave up hope; it might come flooding back at anyprovocation.”

“Like the teens I worked with, I understood the need for miracles--they kept reality from paralyzing you”