“But what did I have left to contribute? Just this? Just being the last known pair of truly human eyes to look up into the sky and experience the ␣eeting ␣ush of hope? Being a person, I had come to realize, is a communal activity. Dogs know how to be dogs. But people do not know how to be people unless and until they learn from other people.”

“Being a person, I had come torealize, is a communal activity. Dogs know how to be dogs. But peopledo not know how to be people unless and until they learn from otherpeople.”

“It was an indulgence, learning last words. Other people had chocolate; I had dying declarations.”

“Son, if there's on thing I know," and Colin thought about how old people always like to tell you the one thing they know, "it's that there's some people in this world who you can just love and love and love no matter what.”

“How do you just stop being terrified of getting left behind and ending up by yourself forever and not meaning anything to the world?”

“What is the nature of being a person? What is the best way to go about being a person? How did we come to be and what will become of us when we are no longer? In short: what are the rules of this game and how might we best play it?"The nature of the labyrinth, I scribbled into my spiral notebook, and the way out of it.”

“He was gone, and I did not have time to tell him what I had just now realized: that I forgave him, and that she forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth. There were so many of us who would have to live with things done and things left undone that day. Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can’t know better until knowing better is useless. And as I walked back to give Takumi’s note to the Colonel, I saw that I would never know. I would never know her well enough to know her thoughts in those last minutes, would never know if she left us on purpose. But the not-knowing would not keep me from caring, and I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart.”