“The most important things in your life are almost always impossible to predict.”

“Imagination is a place where all the important answers live.”

“When she cries, it is quiet, tearless, almost completely imperceptible: one more unheard prayer.”

“After school the very next day, El Rey's mobile home was gone. I laid in bed and wondered what happens to people when they go, if they become like shadows, if they fade away when they disappear from your life. The only thing I could see was the broken picket fence. The only sound I could hear was the cry of birds being killed in the night.”

“Kristin nods, marching ahead of Clark, who gazes as the impossible smallness of Kristin’s ankles and feet. Years later, while imprisoned for drug charges, he will think of those tiny feet and know he is forever doomed for having lied to her, for having harmed something so delicate, so defenseless, so small, so weak.”

“I did a bad thing tonight, one of the most terrible things ever: I waited for her to fall asleep, then stole the sheet from under her head. I am missing you or maybe just the idea of you. I have begun seriously thinking about other men. I am afraid I am not strong enough or tough enough for this. I am afraid all the time. I have not slept well in months. When are you coming back, you jerk? We are all trying to be brave without you and doing a real crummy job of it. I do not want to have to be brave anymore without you.”

“I'm still trying to figure things out too. All I know is a couple of very unimportant things.”