“Growing up is hard, love. Otherwise everyone would do it.”

“I meant I’m not afraid of love being difficult. If it was easy, then everyone would find it.”

“What do you want me to do?Marry you?People grow up! Move away! I’m going to college, not the moon!”

“He didn't want Lucy to grow up feeling alone, surrounded by everything and having nothing.”

“Elves apparently had a short childhood. Not like witches, who seemed to take forever to grow up, according to Jenks.”

“Head lowered, Al looked at his bare hands, folded in his lap. “I knew you could, otherwise I wouldn’t have let you get into that position. But now everyone else knows it, too. I wasn’t expecting how vulnerable you would be, and word gets around. It is too easy for…” He hesitated. “You’re so damn helpless…,” he tried again, his words cutting off once more. “How am I supposed to keep them off you now that they know?”

“But why allow someone to make a bad choice when a little information might engender a better one? It's hard to wake up and see the sun if the blinds are pulled.”