“I used to dream big. It seemed like somewhere along the way I had forgotten about that. And gave up.”

“I used to think I'd be just like them when I grew up, but I am not. And the thing is, somewhere along the way, I stopped wanting to be like them, anyway.”

“I could not help but think that somewhere along the way we had missed what was radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable.”

“This wasn't the way he had expected his life to be. It worked, but that was about all. Happiness had got lost somewhere along the way.”

“I hummed love songs, silent love songs the words of which I’ve forgotten, sang to myself for nights on end, never tiring of praising my love in song, it was just as it ought to be and I dreamed the whole of Germany had exploded and just we two were lying, buried alive, somewhere in the last warmth of ashes, the air was used up and I gave her my last breath in one long kiss—that kind of stuff, I take nothing of it back, it was right and it was marvelous.”

“Things certainly aren't the way you imagine them when you're a kid and dreaming big dreams about what your life as a grown-up will look like.”