“This is my formula for the fall of things:we come to a river we always knew we'd have to cross.It ferries the twilight down through fieldworksof corn and half-blown sunflowers.The only sounds, one lost cicada calling to itselfand the piping of a bird that will never have a name.Now tell me there is a pausewhere we know there should be an end;then tell me you too imagined it this waywith our shadows never quite touching the riverand the river never quite reaching the sea.”

“If you send me on my way today," I whispered "If you tell me to get the hell out of your life and never come back...I'll accept it. But it will be the one and only permanent regret of my life: that we never made love.That we lost our future together.”

“Since you think it my duty, Mr. Farebrother, I will tell you that I have too strong a feeling for Fred to give him up for any one else. I should never be quite happy if I thought he was unhappy for the loss of me. It has taken such deep root in me—my gratitude to him for always loving me best, and minding so much if I hurt myself, from the time when we were very little. I cannot imagine any new feeling coming to make that weaker.”

“Tell me, is it better to know love and have lost it or to have never known it at all? [Camulus]”

“I only have have one question, scraping the inside of me. Answer it, and I will stumble back into her shadow, shut my mouth, never ask again. I've tried to ignore it, but it won't go away. It haunts my dreams, chases me through every single day, and I don't have the strength to turn around, face it down. So please tell me and I swear I'll never ask again. It's in your power to make it go away, and all you have to do is tell me why you love her more.”

“To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are.”