“Only the passionate were immortal, it seemed. If you fought, screwed, screamed, laughed, or otherwise experienced life intensely, for better or worse, you left a record. Those who lived a quiet, well-behaved, well-tempered life? Gone without a trace.”

“I thought there's something to be said for honor in this world where there doesn't seem to be any honor left. I thought that maybe happiness wasn't really anything more than the knowledge of a life well spent, in spite of whatever immediate discomfort you had to undergo, and that if a life well spent meant compromises and conciliations and reconciliations, and suffering at the hands of the person you love, well then better that than live without honor.”

“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”

“The truth is that not story or life lived goes on without the experiences changing you. For better or worse, life does that. The events that take place make you who you are. Sometimes they take more than you have to give.”

“For better or worse, there are few things so disarming as one who laughs well at her own expense.”

“Do what comes into your life and do it well... Be polite without groveling. If you are ever afraid of anything, do not deny it, but behave as if you feared nothing.”