“It’s true that iffriends can never count on you being there the next timethey need you, the place they leave for you might be verysmall. That’s self-defense. If you abandon people—even if it’snot your fault—they will eventually get over you and findsomeone else. Good for them. But you’re an adult now, andyou can build things as deep and as long-lasting as you wantto. I wish you wouldn’t underestimate your ability to makepeople love you. - Aunt Aja”

“You have to treat your car with love. And I don’t mean love of an object. You see, that’s just wrong. That’s materialism. You have to love your car like it’s sentient being, like it can love you back. Now, that’s some deep-down agape love.”

“Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you.”

“Charlie, don’t you get it? I can’t feel that. It’s sweet and everything, but it’s like you’re not even there sometimes. It’s great that you can listen and be a shoulder to someone, but what about when someone doesn’t need a shoulder? What if they need the arms or something like that? You can’t just sit there and put everybody’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can’t. You have to do things.”

“You’re attracted to me?” “Oh, God,” I groan. “That’s the last thing you need for your ego.” “That’s probably true,” he laughs. “Better hurry up and insult me before my ego gets as big as yours.” “You need a hair cut,” I blurt out. “Really bad. It gets in your eyes and you squint and you’re constantly moving it out of the way like you’re Justin Bieber and it’s really distracting.”

“...Things happenedwhen you were little. Things youdon't remember now, and don't wantto. But they need to escape,need to worm their way outof that dark place in your brainwhere you keep them stashed.”