“This was the first time in my life that so many things would never happen again.”

“feeling - probably for the first time in my life - the fear and excitement of living in a place where you never know what's going to happen or when.”

“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.”

“Do you know why I left America, Lidewij? So that I would never again have to encounter Americans.""But you are an American.""Incurably so, it seems.”

“That didn’t happen, of course. Things never happened the way I imagined them.”

“Things never happened like I imagined them.”

“Things never happen like I imagined them”