“Toby liked to say he chose not to be impulsive. As if being impulsive were something you consciously decide. When I look at Starling, with her turquoise turban and wet knot of hair, and at Rowan, with his stack of cheap string anklets, I think: Impulsive isn't something you choose. It's something you are. Like gay, or freckled or bipolar. Something I pretend to be but am not. Not really. Not deep down.”

“Impulsive isn’t something you choose. It’s something youare.”

“Contemplation is a roadmap to doubt. Mom calls me impulsive. I like to think i'm intuitive. If you think about something...anything...long enough, you can talk yourself right out of it.”

“For a moment, looking felt like something that happened to you rather than something you did. Not 'Are you who I think you are?' Am I who you think I am?”

“He learned that when people are very poor they still have something to give and the impulse to give it.”

“The secret of successfully giving yourself away lies not so much in calculated actions as in cultivating friendly, warm-hearted impulses. You have to train yourself to obey giving impulses on the instant -- before they get a chance to cool. When you give impulsively, something happens inside of you that makes you glow, sometimes for hours.”