“The whole point of growing up is learning to stay on the laughing side.”

“That’s just the kind of thing that kids do to each other. It’s no big deal. There’s always going to be a person laughing and somebody getting laughed at. It happens every day, in every school, in every town in America—probably in the world, for all I know. The whole point of growing up is learning to stay on the laughing side.”

“Everywhere he touches is fire. My whole body is burning up, the two of us becoming twin points of the same bright white flame.”

“It's Connecticut: being like the people around you is the whole point.”

“I know that the whole point—the only point—is tofind the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse tolet them go.”

“All this time, I thought we were growing apart because I was leaving Lena behind. But really it was the reverse. She was learning to lie.She was learning to love.”

“And I guess that's when it starts to hit me: the whole point is, you do what you can.”