“Grief can choke you. It’s dangerous, something else you have to beat.”

“This is the theory… that anything that is art… is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other, because if you just have the something it is boring and if you just have the something else it’s irritating.”

“You have a skill. You can do something no one else can,” Barron says. “Seriously. You know what’s good about that? It’s valuable. As in you can trade it for goods or services. Or money. Remember when I said it was wasted on you? I was so right.”

“...hate is a hard thing to sustain. Grief isn't. Grief is something that can stay with you for a very long time”

“You know, it’s dangerous to touch me like that.” He gazeddown into my eyes.“You didn’t seem to mind.”“That’s because I can control myself better than others. You havea date with danger or something?”That was an understatement. It was more like death.”

“The interesting thing about grief, I think, is that it is its own size. It is not the size of you. It is its own size. And grief comes to you. You know what I mean? I’ve always liked that phrase “He was visited by grief,” because that’s really what it is. Grief is its own thing. It’s not like it’s in me and I’m going to deal with it. It’s a thing, and you have to be okay with its presence. If you try to ignore it, it will be like a wolf at your door.”