“I never told you this enough- it's a failing between all men, I think, but too often of fathers to their sons- I love you. When you came into the world, you brought me a new purpose and a new drive. Suddenly , I was not just a parent, I was a guardian too.”

“Too late came I to love you, O Beauty both so ancient and so new! Too late came I to love you - and behold you were with me all the time . . .”

“Love never fails, Mila. That's what your parents believed. And because of you, it's what I believe now, too. You stuck by me and loved me when I didn't deserve it. All I want is a chance to prove that I can be worthy of it. Your parents were sort of fucked up in their own way, like me, and they never got the help that they needed. But I will. I promise. I will put the work in. I will learn how to cope with painful things and I will never leave you again. Just tell me that you'll stay with me.”

“The guardians," Joshua begins. "We want you to join us."I laugh quietly, not understanding. "I, um, didn't think that was possible as long as I was living.""Not as a Guardian Guardian. As a Helper of Guardians. It's a new position. Just for you. I've been sent to talk to you since Seth refused." Joshua throws Seth a nasty look.”

“It's appealing to imagine that if we can just get that one thing in our life to work out-- [...] that everything will be solved, absolved, good to go for good. I slipped into that way of thinking way too often, I admitted to Missy, even though I knew that sometimes in life all of a sudden there you were--standing with your Technics turntables just across the Canadian border, and you're not a new you, you're just you, but in Canada.”

“I felt like crying but nothing came out. it was just a sort of sad sickness, sick sad, when you can't feel any worse. I think you know it. I think everybody knows it now and then. but I think I have known it pretty often, too often.”