“Listen, I know everything you're saying is true. Ellie does need a good man. She needs someone steady. Someone who can offer her a life full of love and security.Unfortunately, she wants me.- Mason”

“And then she told me she didn’t want someone who needed her in order to be a better guy. She wanted someone who was better by himself, with or without her.”

“She needs me. She needs someone who understands and appreciates who she is, and who she’s decided to be. And I need her, because who she is, and who she’s decided to be are—big surprise to me—what I’ve been waiting for all my life.”

“...I understand Mother's need, whatever she might say on the phone, what she really wants is to hear, before she closes her eyes, the voice of someone who loves her. Love is at last, our only rejoinder to darkness.”

“When I met her, I saw her as someone else who needed saving but she had saved me. She had given me hope when I had given up on everything in my life.”

“It's the secret smile you get from knowing that, somewhere, there is someone who is yours. Not in the sense that you own her or control her. She is yours because you can say anything to her, whenever you need to. And she can do the same, whenever she needs to.”