“The Flanigan family had a love that could laugh through anything, a love that knew no color barriers or resentment.”

“I had often thought that if I managed to live through the war I wouldn't expect too much of life. How could one resent disappointment in love if life itself was continuously in doubt? Since Belgorod, terror had overturned all my preconceptions, and the pace of life had been so intense one no longer knew what elements of ordinary life to abandon in order to maintain some semblance of balance. I was still unresigned to the idea of death, but I had already sworn to myself during moments of intense fear that I would exchange anything - fortune, love, even a limb - if I could simply survive.”

“The Deoraghan celebrated anything that could be celebrated, because they never knew what tomorrow held. Caleb had never met any other people who categorically refused to live life with regrets. They loved passionately. They fought fervently. They laughed often. They drank even more often.”

“And was there love there? Beyond the limits of flesh and time, was all love possible? Was it necessary? The voice of my thoughts seemed to be Uncle Lamb's. My family, and all I knew of love as a child. A man who had never spoken love to me, who had never needed to, for I knew he loved me, as surely as I knew I loved. For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary. It is all. It is undying. And it is enough.”

“He wished he had feelings for Andi, wanted to be interested in her...But there were 10 quick reasons why he wasn't interested. The biggest: Bailey Flanigan. He could hear her laugh from across the room. He sighed, and it felt like it came from the basement of his soul.”

“His love for her was so deeply woven with resentment that he could not untangle the two.”