“Knowledge was power, but a good librarian did not hoard the gift. She taught others how to find, where to look, how to see.”

“After years of seeing the world in absolutes, he has taught me how to pick out all the shades of possibilities.”

“How could he convey to someone who'd never even met her the way she always smelled like rain, or how his stomach knotted up every time he saw her shake loose her hair from its braid? How could he describe how it felt when she finished his sentences, turnec the mug they were sharing so that her mouth landed where his had been? How did he explain the way they could be in a locker room, or underwater, or in the piney woods of Maine, bus as long as Em was with him, he was at home?”

“She pictured how it would feel to trust your instincts in a strange land, to know the difference between where you had been and where you were going.”

“Where is the line? We're taught to stand up for ourselves; we're taught to stand up for others we care about. But all of a sudden, there's a new line drawn by the law. You sit back, it says, and let us deal with this.”

“ How are you going to know who I am, she finally said, if I dont look like me?”

“Ross held her face between his hands and kissed her. He tasted doubt on her tongue and pain on the roof of her mouth. He swallowed these, and drank again. Consumed, she had no choice but to see how empty he was inside, and how, sip by sip, she filled him. ”